Old Tangles, New Knots
by Magician April Aries
Summary: Epilogue finally up! Kaoru looked up into his dark eyes and smiled. “Okay,” he said, letting his head rest against the Shadow King’s shoulder.
1. Prologue: The First Crack

A/N: Hiya. This is my first Ouran fic, so go easy on me, okay? (cue nervous laughter)

* * *

Prologue: The First Crack 

It began on the day when Hikaru took it just a _little _bit too far.

Hikaru had been bored.

So, like any other normal bored boy, he had proposed playing a game of let's-chase-Haruhi-around-the-room-with-a-dress.

"Oh… no…" Kaoru squeaked, grabbing at Hikaru's arm. It seemed like a bizarre repeat of what they had once done to Hunny's beloved Usa-chan; there was spilled tea and a disturbed cup on the table. But what scared him the most was the object that his beloved twin had reduced to a mess of soggy pulp.

Hikaru stared for a moment before quaking in his expensive leather shoes. It was rare that he felt fear. There was that one time, when Kaoru had fallen down the stairs when they were little. And that time when their maid left them, telling them that they might never be told apart—it had scared him, knowing that he could never be away from Kaoru. And now he was afraid again, the terror now definitely overshadowing every other instance. Right now he would prefer having to climb Mount Everest than face this situation. "Uh…"

They heard the sound of stealthy footsteps behind them—no louder than the sound of a panther's footfalls. Kaoru shuddered. That wasn't a good image; he felt like the panther's prey, even though technically he hadn't done anything.

Kyouya picked up the remains of the plain black notebook with the light refracting dangerously off his glasses. "Ah." He leafed through it with delicate, butterfly touches before concluding that the data in it would not be salvageable. "Hitachiin Hikaru…"

"It wasn't his fault, sempai," Haruhi said. "It was an accident."

And then Hikaru opened his mouth. "N-no, I'm not Hikaru," he said in perfect imitation of Kaoru's slightly higher-pitched voice. "I'm Kaoru." He could see the hurt, betrayal, irritation and finally understanding and forgiveness flitter through Kaoru's eyes and he cursed himself for being a coward. But Kaoru always took the hit for him; and hello, it was the Shadow King they were talking about!

Kaoru understood. He always did. Haruhi said nothing, although her glare accused him. Whoops. But no backing out now…

Hikaru widened his eyes slightly. "I'm sorry, Kyouya-sempai, I didn't mean to wreck your notebook. It was an accident."

"Do not play me for a fool, Hitachiin Hikaru; I know very well who you are." Kyouya's eyes were like daggers. "It would be easy to fool someone else, but I am not easy prey like most people."

Kyouya's notebooks were sacred. While the twins would have been irreverent enough to put frogs in the tea of a high-profile actress, cause mayhem in a chapel, or even tamper with the machinery in some company's building, they would never, ever have even dreamt of laying hands on one of Kyouya's notebooks. What was in there, no one ever knew except for the third Ootori himself.

The bets: Haruhi thought that he was just taking down prices—although sometimes she also wondered whether there were secret files about all of Ouran's students in there since he always seemed to have just the right data at hand. Tamaki had insisted that it was some secret plan to take over the world.

Now that they thought about it, it was probably the most likely answer.

Hunny claimed that it was probably the price listings for their snacks (and while this may have been partly right, the others turned his suggestion down). Mori had abstained. The twins said that it was his diary where he wrote his secret emotions—and they had dramatized the entries that they fantasized him writing about.

Not that they would ever tell Kyouya that—like Renge—they were making up scenarios where he confessed his adoration for Tamaki.

Tamaki hadn't exactly liked that either, but the twins were more than a match for _him_.

"But… but I really _am _Hikaru!" protested Kaoru from the sidelines, his voice lowered slightly to sound gruffer, more like his more aggressive brother. "And hey, don't pick on my brother like that."

"Kaoru, do _not _get involved in this," Kyouya said threateningly, advancing on Hikaru. "It has nothing to do with you."

"But… I'm Kaoru," Hikaru said.

"You think I can't tell?"

Haruhi paused. "You mean… you can?"

Kyouya glared at them. "I think it would be obvious by now."

Hikaru and Kaoru exchanged looks before nodding at each other, and then, moving too quickly for the eye to see, they moved around the room in a blur (Super Twin Technique: pinball attack plus bounce off the walls style!) and finally presented themselves to Kyouya again. "I did it," they said simultaneously, thumping their chests with their hands. There. It would be impossible to tell who was who. They looked challengingly at him, their motions and expressions mirroring each other's.

Kyouya let out a weary sigh. "Kaoru," he said, laying a hand on the correct twin's shoulder without even hesitating. "And this one is Hikaru," he said, indicating the other one with a slight nod of the head. "All right? I hope that you're satisfied now. Your games are ridiculous."

Haruhi stared. "He's… right."

Kaoru's eyes bugged out. "Since when could you tell us apart?"

The Shadow King raised an eyebrow. "I always could," he said simply. "I just never saw fit to advertise the fact. There would be no benefit if I were to join your which-one-is-Hikaru game, and in any case, were I to give away the answer, ratings would drop considerably."

"Eh?" Hikaru frowned at him. "You could have said something! You always referred to us as Hikaru-and-Kaoru, never just… Hikaru. And Kaoru."

"I never had a reason to," Kyouya said, his nose turning up slightly at the younger boy. "And if you really must know, I was going to tell you that that wasn't my notebook. It's Tamaki's; he asked me to bring it in for him at club today since he left it at my house yesterday."

"Oh, so it was just milord's…" Hikaru's comment died unfinished when he saw the expression on Kyouya's face.

He smirked. "We were supposed to submit them today for Biology class. Tamaki will fail because of you. I suppose you understand that our profits will go down because of the adverse effect this will have on Tamaki?" He grinned, obviously thoroughly enjoying this. "Guess who'll be reimbursing that amount?"

* * *

The people who could tell them apart landed into their world. That was a fact. No, it was their _law. _They had long accepted Haruhi to be a part of their world. But Kyouya—that was a different matter altogether.

Haruhi was cute.

Kyouya was…

Scary.

And that was an understatement.

Haruhi was their classmate, and therefore offered endless opportunities to be harassed at any moment.

The thought of even touching the older host scared the twins out of their minds.

"He would have us beaten up by his private army," Kaoru murmured.

"And then he would ship us off to the Artic," Hikaru added.

"Where there's no maple syrup—"

"—no video games, or at least I doubt Kyouya-sempai will let us bring them—"

"—snow _everywhere, _for heaven's sake—"

"—we'll have to live on penguin burgers—"

"—learn how to ride polar bears—"

"—and wear bulky layers of drab-colored clothes."

They exchanged horrorstruck looks. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

The Hitachiins: once you threatened their impeccable fashion sense, they would do everything in their power to eliminate you.

Presuming anyone could eliminate the Shadow King, anyway.

"We have to do something," Kaoru whispered, his eyes trained on the tall, lithe figure that wove effortlessly through their customers. Why hadn't they ever _looked _at Kyouya before? They never had—at least not properly. If they had bothered to more than glance at those dark eyes, maybe they would have noticed.

Those eyes saw everything. They watched a person, memorized every little detail and stored it away for storage in his nimble mind. Why were they so surprised that he _knew_? He knew everything.

Kyouya's eyes flickered in their direction, and his mouth twitched as though he was suppressing a smirk. Hikaru and Kaoru both flinched. He was calculating, and they knew it.

"You guys are being ridiculous," Haruhi said, shaking her head. "What's the big deal if Kyouya-sempai knows which is which?"

Whoops. Apparently her voice was a little louder than she'd intended.

"What do you mean, Haruhi-kun?" asked one of their customers, puzzled. Oh dear—her voice was even louder than Haruhi's, and by now everyone turned to look at them. "You mean that Kyouya-sempai can tell apart Hikaru-kun and Kaoru-kun?"

"No!" Hikaru insisted. Kaoru shook his head vehemently.

Tamaki let out a little laugh. "Of course not. Isn't that right, mother? Otherwise you would have helped me during our first year when they made me try to tell them apart."

Hunny looked up from behind his cake. The others stared at the adorable senior; it was rare that he came up for air in the middle of a sugar session. "I think that Kyou-chan can," he announced. Mori grunted in agreement.

Kyouya pretended not to hear and scribbled something in the notebook.

"But Kyouya-sama, that would be so _cool_!" one of them gushed.

Uh-oh. The key word was _cool. _Kyouya looked up, his eyes sparked with interest.

Whatever he was doing, Kyouya embodied the cool gene. It was his act as a host. Even when he was stressed out and being evil or reluctantly agreeing to another one of Tamaki's idiotic schemes, he radiated an aura that was a paradox of being smoldering with intensity and yet was frostily aloof.

"Kyaa! That's right, it would be just like Kyouya-sama to be able to know which one is which. It's part of his 'refreshing' personality," agreed another girl, beaming at him. "Isn't that right, Kyouya-sama?"

Oh no. 'Refreshing'? As though _cool _wasn't bad enough…

Kyouya barely glanced at them, but the barest hint of a smirk tugged at his lips. "The one on the right is Kaoru."

"No, you're wrong!" the twins chorused. It was more of a knee-jerk reaction to say so, really.

The Shadow King walked towards them, leaning in close to Kaoru, who inexplicably turned red. "Do not lead me on, Hitachiin Kaoru," he said, his slender fingers moving too quickly for Kaoru to stop him.

He easily extracted the freshman's Ouran ID from his pocket that proved that he really was—unfortunately—Hitachiin Kaoru. He smiled darkly at the younger boy, his eyes half-closing as he peered intently at the redhead's face. "Do you really want to try to trick me again? Another stunt like that and I may be forced to…" He raised his eyebrows, letting the sentence hang unfinished in the air.

"KYAA!" The girls went wild—obviously Kyouya's intended effect.

* * *

Once all their customers had left, Kyouya glanced over at Kaoru. "I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable back there."

Hikaru looked at him with flaming eyes. "Yeah, well, maybe you should have thought about that before you made a move!" Already Renge was going on and on and on about a wonderful and bizarre new pairing in the Host Club, which had caused an avalanche of 'Kyaa!'-crazy girls to babble about how much money they were willing to pay to see that.

So it really wasn't any wonder that Kyouya had stayed silent.

On the other hand, Kaoru had turned into a tongue-tied mess when the girls questioned him, unable to follow his usual oh-I'm-so-in-love-with-Hikaru-and-would-never-betray-him style, only fueling the suspicions of the chattering girls.

Well, who could stay coherent anyway, when Kyouya was giving him a meaningful look that clearly said say-the-wrong-thing-and-I'll-have-you-shipped-to-the-Artic?

And there was no maple syrup in the Artic.

No maple syrup? He would never have survived!

Hikaru was—and had been—furious. The girls lapped it up all the more when he had yelled at Kyouya to stop molesting Kaoru.

And Kyouya merely replied, "If you can't hold on to him tightly enough, then I have every right to take your twin from you." And with that, he had taken hold of Kaoru's hand and squeezed it lightly with a smug wink as Kaoru stuttered and tried to pull away—not very successfully, in fact.

Cue the fainting fits from the girls.

"I didn't have much of a choice," Kyouya replied coldly. "After Haruhi's earlier outburst, I had to do some damage control. Of course I have to maintain my host club persona if we want to keep up earnings."

"Sorry about that, sempai," Haruhi said in a hurry, praying that he wouldn't add to her debt.

"But since we're likely to garner bigger profits from this little incident, I wouldn't worry about it too much, Haruhi," the Shadow King added. Haruhi breathed a sigh of relief.

"Why didn't you help me out back then when they made me try to tell them apart?" Tamaki wailed.

Kyouya raised an eyebrow. "I cannot recollect you ever asking for my help with that."

"It's not a big deal, Hikaru," Haruhi said comfortingly. "I thought that you would be happy that people are able to tell you apart."

"Yeah, but not _Kyouya_-sempai!"

The Shadow King twitched. "Do you think that's a compliment?"

"Of all the Host Club, I wish it was anyone _but _him," Hikaru groaned.

"Uh, Hikaru, may I remind you that he can make your life a living hell?" Kaoru murmured from the side.

Hikaru turned on him. "Oh sure, defend him. After all, you were the one who seemed to be enjoying it so much earlier!"

"_Enough_, Hikaru," Kyouya said, the words cracking in the air like a whip. "I have no idea why you are so possessive of your younger brother, but rest assured that I had nothing else in mind but the profit to be earned." He checked his watch. "Tamaki, let's go. My car should be waiting outside. And if it isn't, I _know _that a certain driver will never work in this town again."

"He tries his hardest, Kyouya—"

There it was again, the scary light-off-my-glasses-making-me-look-like-I'm-from-another-planet thing. "But if his _hardest_ isn't good enough, then _I'll _have to be _harder_ on him, don't you think?"

As they left, Kaoru looked up at Hikaru. "Did you seriously think that I liked it?"

"No," Hikaru said, deflating. "Sorry, Kaoru. I was just irritated, that's all."

Kaoru grinned a bit. "Because you were so jealous of anyone touching me?" he asked in his simpering host-club voice.

"Of course, my beloved brother," Hikaru said back, pretending to pull him close. "We must formulate plans to end that Shadow King's insidious influence in identifying us."

Kaoru smiled, enjoying the feel of his brother's familiar arms wrapped around him. "Yes, Hikaru," he breathed. "I don't want anyone else to—"

Haruhi made an impatient noise when she glanced at her watch before grabbing her bag and leaving as well. At that moment, Hikaru broke away from the embrace.

"Hey, Haruhi, wait!" he called out, chasing after the brown-haired girl and cutting his twin off mid-sentence. Kaoru watched his twin grab her arm and fall into step with her. With a small sigh, he went to pick up his backpack from the table in the back of the room. Hikaru would wait for him anyway.

Plus the fact that their driver would remind his brother if he forgot…

"Kao-chan," Hunny said.

"Yeah?"

"Do you really mind all that much that Kyou-chan can tell you two apart?"

Kaoru hesitated. "A little bit, I guess. Because I don't think of me and Hikaru as apart at all." Then he smiled grimly. "But we are."

* * *

A/N: I know, I know... it was short. But I promise that upcoming chapters will be a lot longer. If you like it so far, please review and I'll update as soon as possible! Thanks for reading. 


	2. Chapter One: Invisibility and Bruises

A/N: Greetings and salutations, particularly to all those who reviewed me. At first I had writer's block... I really wanted to improve on this, but I made a rash statement to starlight2005 today... something to the effect of, "I'm going to update my story! Yeah, I'm going to update it tonight!" Lol. And I am soooooo grateful to all the people who said such positive things, especially The Lolita Doll and japanesenut, who both flattered me by saying this could be (or is) the best Kyouya-Kaoru story there is (not surprising, since there aren't a lot of them, and I know flattery when I see it!), to trueyamigirlfriend who was my first reviewer--and who liked the maple syrup bit!--and of course, starlight2005, whose stories I am about to go check out and finally review. There, I hope she's happy... she now has a written promise from me. Lol.

But this A/N is dragging on too long, so without further ado, I present to you all Chapter One.

* * *

Chapter One: Invisibility and Bruises 

Once the Host Club girls got their hands on one idea, they didn't let go of it.

"Kaoru-kun, aren't you going to sit over there with Kyouya-sama?" one of them asked meaningfully, raising her eyebrows at them. "He isn't doing anything very much. We're sure that he'd like to see you."

Kaoru flushed, knowing exactly what they were implying. Sometimes he wished that they really were as flighty as they seemed. But actually, they could be pretty determined when they wanted to be. "Ah, but I wouldn't want to let go of my darling brother," he said, casting his eyes down demurely. "Hikaru—"

He stopped. Hikaru was talking to Haruhi and her customers. He was joking around, drawing unwilling giggles from the girl dressed as a guy while making the reserved girls who designated Haruhi come a little more out of their shell. "Oh."

"Hikaru-kun seems busy," the girl observed.

As though a button had just been pressed, Hikaru looked up at them and gestured with a lazy smile that Kaoru should join them. Kaoru shook his head lightly and tilted his head to indicate their own customers. But the waggle of Hikaru's eyebrows signified that he wouldn't be coming back for a while.

Kaoru made a weak attempt at laughter. "Of course Haruhi _is _our best friend," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. He wasn't as good at hosting without Hikaru. In fact, his appeal lay mainly in his interaction with his twin brother. Suddenly he felt a little bit helpless and more than just a little cold without Hikaru.

"Then that settles it!" the girl chirped. "Kyouya-sama, could you please come over here?"

Kyouya's head was lifted from his calculator. He currently didn't have any customers, and didn't plan on having any for at least another hour. But if the princesses wished it, he had better get moving. "Yes, hime-sama?" he asked, gracefully getting to his feet.

"Kaoru here was _dying _to talk to you!"

Kaoru's cheeks burned. "Kyouya-sempai, I don't know how this happened," he muttered in the older boy's ear while displaying a false smile to his customers. "It's just that Hikaru is kind of busy."

Kyouya nodded without looking. "I know. And if Haruhi's customers weren't enjoying themselves so thoroughly, I would have ordered him back. Your earnings will suffer without him." He offered Kaoru a predatory grin. "I have no alternative but to serve as a substitute in the meantime. I have no customers at the moment anyway, and if there are any, they can just join us here." He smirked. "Let's give them a show."

"What? Sempai!" Kaoru reddened even further when Kyouya lazily draped an arm on his shoulders. The girls let out squeals that caused Tamaki to look over.

"Kyouya! How could you let yourself be corrupted by that little devil!" he cried out. The rest of the host club peeked at the cozy little scene. Hikaru purpled with fury.

"Well, well… it looks like Hikaru will be coming to reclaim his place," Kyouya noted. He smirked. "Ladies, I think I am intruding—"

"Not on your life!" one of them said, grabbing his arm to prevent him from leaving. "We don't want you to leave, Kyouya-sempai!"

It seemed that Haruhi's customers didn't want Hikaru to leave either, and Haruhi tugged gently on his arm, silently asking him to sit back down. With a last glowering look over at Kaoru and Kyouya, he flopped unceremoniously back into his seat.

"That was entertaining," Kyouya murmured to Kaoru. The redheaded boy was far too inhibited about the whole thing. After all, they had done stranger things for the sake of the club. With a smirk, he blew gently into Kaoru's ear, causing the Hitachiin to shudder and scoot a little bit away from him.

"KYOUYA! YOUR BEAUTIFUL INNOCENCE WILL BE TAINTED BY—"

"If there's any innocence for to be taken, Tamaki, rest assured that it is not mine," Kyouya's smooth voice cut through the king's babbling. "_I _will be doing the taking."

That was the last straw. Ignoring the protests of the girls surrounding him and Haruhi, Hikaru stalked over and glared at Kyouya.

"Hikaru," Kyouya said, inclining his head. He smirked. "I have to get back to the club's accounts now anyway. I'm very sorry, ladies, but I really must go."

The girls pouted. "But—"

Kyouya suppressed a low growl of frustration and inwardly cursed his best friend for coming up with the idea of a _host club_, of all things. It meant that you didn't own yourself, and that you had to act charming to just about everyone. Then again, he was used to it, wasn't he? He smiled, knowing that he had to appease them somehow. "Now, now, ladies—I don't want to lose control of myself right here and now." And with a swift movement, he took Kaoru's hand and kissed it. "Adieu for now, Kaoru. Princesses," he added, bowing low to them.

* * *

Now it wasn't just the girls. It was the rest of the host club as well.

"Kyouya, you have gone over to the ranks of the minor homo-homo characters!" Tamaki wailed.

Kyouya didn't even look up from his notebook. "You classified me as one of them from the very beginning, Tamaki," he said, completely deadpan. "That threat does not deter me in the least. Nor would it have, even if you hadn't called me a 'minor homo-homo character' from the start." He added emphasis on his quotation, wrinkling his nose in distaste.

"You don't touch my brother," Hikaru said.

Kaoru sighed. "He didn't _touch _me. It was just a hand kiss."

"But—"

"If you hadn't abandoned your usual post, I wouldn't have had to go over," Kyouya pointed out. "But now that I think about, it _would _be rather profitable if you joined Haruhi's customers. Your quirkiness sets off her natural host talent, though there is the issue of yours and Kaoru's customers. I don't think that I would be as popular as when it's the two of you. Forbidden love between twins, after all, is your selling point, and I'm not exactly Kaoru's twin."

Hikaru glared. "You seemed to do okay."

"Is that an attempt to dissuade me from adopting that strategy? Because it seems to be the exact opposite."

Hunny nodded. "It isn't Kyou-chan's fault that you left Kao-chan!" he agreed. "Kyou-chan was only trying to help. If Kyou-chan hadn't stepped in, I would have invited Kao-chan to join me and Takashi instead." He turned towards Mori. "I was just about to, isn't that right, Takashi?"

"Yes," the normally silent senior confirmed.

Hikaru struggled to compose a reply. "Well, obviously, there's nothing wrong with either of you guys…"

"I don't understand why you would treat me any differently from Hunny-sempai or Mori-sempai," Kyouya said coolly. "Unless you are suggesting that Kaoru gave any indication that I meant more to him than an ordinary sempai would."

"Don't be stupid!" Kaoru interjected before Hikaru could reply. "Of course not. Hikaru was just putting on a show for the girls. Right, Hikaru?"

Hikaru glared. "Of course, Kaoru."

"Oh, I see," Kyouya purred. "I understand, naturally. But please don't let your act get out of hand, Hikaru." He gave them a faint nod.

"Then it would be even better to create a love triangle… or square, if Haruhi agrees," Renge chirped, the light of mania flashing in her eyes.

Kyouya began to think it over. "That _would _be rather effective, at least in the short-term, and fairly simple to pull off. Profits would skyrocket. Hikaru and Kaoru, I doubt that the two of you have any real reason to object. And I think that I can offer Haruhi an incentive concerning her debt…"

Haruhi perked up immediately at the mention of her debt. "What does it entail?" she asked warily.

"Nothing _too _far, Haruhi, you just have to act like the unwitting boy whom Hikaru gradually falls in love with. Kaoru will naturally be the faithful lover who eventually turns to Kyouya even though he wants to stay with his twin brother and rekindle their fading forbidden love," Renge said brightly.

"It sounds feasible," Kyouya agreed.

Tamaki frowned. "You sound more than a little too eager to take on this job, Kyouya—"

Kyouya's smile dropped. "Then would you rather I do it with you?" he asked, his eyes alight with strange fire.

"The king rules alone, Kyouya," Tamaki said, tossing his head. "But I refuse to let out precious daughter be involved in this sordid scheme."

The light flashed off Kyouya's glasses. "I beg your pardon?"

"Nothing!" the king squeaked, recognizing the danger signs. "Nothing at all, mother, go ahead and raise our daughter as you see fit."

The others stayed quiet, knowing that it was best not to interfere with Kyouya when he was in scary-demon-business-overlord mode. Even Hikaru didn't object.

"Good," Kyouya said, nodding in satisfaction. "I thought that you might see it that way."

* * *

"Hikaru… I don't want to go to club tomorrow," Kaoru whispered to his twin as they lay side by side in bed. "I don't want to have to act with Kyouya-sempai. I want to act with _you_."

His twin was silent a moment. "Well, I guess there's nothing really wrong about it," he finally acknowledged. "I mean, he's right. It's not really like he's any different from Hunny-sempai or Mori-sempai. The only difference is that he can tell us apart, but it's not really that big a thing. I only overreacted because he was all over you and because you were blushing and all. No one molests my little brother."

Kaoru reached out and took Hikaru's hand in his. "You know that I'm not interested in things like that," he said quietly.

Hikaru glanced at him. "Sorry, I know you're not gay," he said. "Didn't mean to imply otherwise."

_That wasn't really what I was trying to say…_ Kaoru took a deep breath, but then released it. There was no point in saying anything now. "Besides, Kyouya-sempai has nothing over you."

Hikaru smirked. "There's no need to do that right now, Kaoru. There's no audience around us."

The younger twin smiled and nodded, a sheepish smile frozen on his face. _That's just the problem. _Around the audience, it was always Hikaru who initiated everything, always Hikaru who flirted and teased. Alone, he barely even touched Kaoru unless Kaoru touched _him._

But Kaoru said nothing about that. "So you mean you're okay with all of this?"

"Yeah," Hikaru said indifferently. "At least I get Haruhi all to myself tomorrow."

Kaoru frowned, but instead of pulling his hand away, he only held on tighter. "Yeah, you guys are lucky."

Hikaru laughed. "I feel kind of sorry for you. You're going to have to hang around Kyouya-sempai all day tomorrow. That's going to suck, big time." He tugged his hand away. "Ouch, that hurt. You crushed my poor fingers." He sighed. "I kind of like the fact that more people can tell us apart now."

"Ah… yeah," Kaoru agreed, snuggling up to him a little.

"Hey, Kaoru, you're too close," Hikaru complained.

"You're hogging the covers, is why," Kaoru said. "I don't know what I should think about being me instead of just part of the Hikaru-and-Kaoru pair." He closed his eyes. "I'm kind of uncomfortable about Kyouya-sempai being the one to know."

Hikaru raised his eyebrows mischievously. "Then let's give him a bit of trouble tomorrow. What do you think?"

"Trouble?" Kaoru repeated, suddenly feeling a sense of foreboding. "Remember that this is Kyouya-sempai we're talking about. Remember the penguin burgers and polar bears as cars?"

"We'll be fine," Hikaru said dismissively. "There's nothing that sempai could do." He smirked. "Besides, I'm bored."

Kaoru sighed. He knew that it was a bad idea, but he agreed anyway. "Okay, okay," he murmured. "You win."

Meanwhile, Kyouya was still dealing with a hyperventilating Tamaki. Apparently the blonde host king had suddenly forgotten about how threatening Kyouya had been—and could be—because Tamaki was still at his house at ten o'clock in the evening, interrupting the Shadow King's studying time. They were supposed to be studying together, but it turned out to be anything but.

"Those devilish twins, targeting not only Haruhi but _you_, Kyouya," Tamaki bemoaned. "I cannot stand by idly when my beloved best friend is under the spell of—"

Kyouya was offended. "No one can manipulate me," he said tartly, slamming his History book shut. He had studied okay, managing to tune Tamaki out for the most part. But now that he was done, there was nothing to distract him from the host king's words grating on his ears. "Shouldn't you go home now?"

Tamaki seemed to wilt under his fierce gaze. "Do you want me to leave?" he asked in a small voice.

Instantly Kyouya felt a stab of guilt—an emotion he rarely felt save for around Tamaki. "No, you can stay," he said curtly. "But it's rather late, Tamaki, and I don't want to keep you." He began repacking his things into his bag. 'I don't want to keep you' was actually polite code for 'please leave now'.

Tamaki shook his head. "Dad's away. It's just grandmother at home."

Kyouya stopped, knowing what Tamaki meant. "Oh." He looked at the blonde. With that look of sorrow so evident in those purple eyes, he knew that he would start to make consoling offers that he would definitely end up regretting later. Might as well get them over with. "You can sleep over," he said grudgingly.

They had an excess of space in the house anyway. One more person staying for the night wouldn't be that much trouble—it would hardly even be noticed. "You can have your chauffeur send your uniform and things over."

"Really?" Tamaki asked, brightening. It was kind of pathetic really, but Kyouya found himself softening despite that fact.

"Yes, really." Kyouya stood up. "I'll show you to one of the guest rooms—"

"No," Tamaki protested. "I want to stay with you, Kyouya."

Kyouya paused before nodding, turning away from the host king so that his expression couldn't be seen. "All right, then. You win this time."

* * *

The following day started off with quite a bang. Kyouya had a sleepy, irritated look about him that radiated an aura of _don't touch me unless you want to die_ and Tamaki was shying away from him as much as possibleKaoru was glaring at Hikaru with a venom that made the older twin cringe. It was also noted that the younger redhead had bruises on his face.

"Tamaki-sempai?" Haruhi asked. "Why are you hiding from Kyouya-sempai?"

Tamaki shuddered. "Have you ever seen Kyouya wake up on a weekday?"

"Uh… no." Haruhi exchanged a glance with the seniors, but Hunny and Mori just shrugged back at her. "Why?"

The Shadow King was a lot of things, but _morning person _wasn't one of them. They had seen him awaken during the weekends before, but apparently that was nothing compared to him getting up for school. "I didn't mean to wake him up like that," Tamaki whimpered.

As it turned out, Tamaki had bounced out of bed at five-thirty sharp, forgetting exactly who he was talking to and proceeding to shake Kyouya repeatedly while singing a good morning.

"Apparently Kyouya needs at least four alarm clocks to get him to wake up," Tamaki said in a low voice. "And they were all set for six. I woke him up a half-hour early, and now he's mad at me."

"Why were you there anyway?" Haruhi asked.

"I just stayed the night. We were studying together," Tamaki said, still trying to avoid Kyouya's piercing eyes.

"Okay, but Kyou-chan understands, right, Kyou-chan?" Hunny piped up.

Kyouya forced a smile on his face. "Oh yes, 'Kyou-chan' gets it," he said in a menacing tone. Mori immediately picked Hunny up and took him away from the Shadow King's immediate vicinity. Kyouya wasn't base enough to crack his knuckles or make direct threats, but the nuances in his attitude were enough.

"Perhaps I should count myself lucky that you saved me some money, Tamaki," he said smoothly. "After all, I normally smash all those alarm clocks in the morning, and I have to replace them with new ones everyday." He scribbled something down in his notebook. "I will, however, charge you for disrupting my sleeping time and lowering my efficiency rate."

Tamaki winced. "No, mother—!"

But Kyouya had already pulled out his phone and was dialing a number into it. "Hello? Takada Catering? We'd like to order five of everything on your menu. Please deliver it to Ouran High School. The bill can be charged to the Suoh family."

"If you're mad at me, don't take it out on my bank account!" wailed Tamaki. "I'm going to get into trouble with grandmother if you overspend!"

"Kyouya-sempai, maybe you should give Tamaki-sempai a break…" Haruhi ventured.

"Yeah, Kyou-chan," Hunny agreed. "Tama-chan didn't really mean to disturb you."

"And an extra portion of your finest ootoro," Kyouya added. Haruhi brightened and immediately stopped her defense of the host king. "And strawberry cake," he added, effectively silencing Hunny.

"Then how come Kao-chan is angry at Hika-chan?" asked Hunny.

Kaoru gave a tight smile that looked more like a grimace. "I'm not mad," he said.

"Did Hika-chan beat you up?" Hunny questioned, suddenly frowning at Hikaru as he moved to touch Kaoru's arm. Kaoru let out a yelp and jerked away, wincing. Mori's brow furrowed and he tugged at Kaoru's jacket, exposing more markings running down Kaoru's arms.

Hikaru looked sheepish. "I really didn't mean to kick you off the bed, Kaoru…"

His twin glared at him. "It's not the getting-kicked-off-the-bed thing that pisses me off," he said shortly. "It's more of the fact that you kicked me so hard I nearly flew across the room." He gritted his teeth. "Five times." Each time he had tried to get back in bed, but Hikaru would promptly boot him off. Giving up, he had finally fallen asleep on the floor.

"Maybe you guys should try sleeping in separate beds, then," Haruhi pointed out.

The twins exchanged looks. Hikaru was staring guiltily at the black-and-blue spots on his brother's white skin. "Maybe," he said doubtfully. He was still pretty amazed that he had kicked his brother _that _hard. Maybe Kaoru just bruised easily…

"No," Kaoru said with firm conviction. "It's fine, okay? I'm not mad." '

"However, those bruises will serve to raise your rating with the customers, if you can turn it into one of your acts," Kyouya said indifferently. "If they don't hurt very much, that is. I think that you should take a painkiller or two, in any case. I have some medical supplies at the back. I'll get them." With a tilt of his chin, he indicated that Kaoru was supposed to follow him.

"Thanks," Kaoru said, getting to his feet and starting after him. He paused for a moment to check whether Hikaru would come along out of concern.

But instead, Hikaru sat with Haruhi and began kidding around, only to be berated by Tamaki for 'corrupting his innocent daughter'.

"Don't look back," Kyouya murmured to him.

"Eh?" Kaoru said, looking up.

Kyouya shrugged. "It would be easier if we didn't."

* * *

"Kaoru-kun, don't those hurt?" one of the girls asked, concerned. "They look awful."

He tried to smile. _Of course they hurt, surely you aren't _that _stupid. _The club had been in full swing for half an hour already, and the painkiller was starting to wear off. He had decided not to take the stronger ones since they would only make him sleepy—and the host club's customers didn't exactly appreciate it when you fell asleep while talking to them. The only one who could get away with that was Hunny-sempai. "It's nothing," he said, dropping his gaze to his lap. "It's just that… Kyouya…" He faltered at just the right moment.

"You mean that you're into Kyouya-sama now?" one of them gasped. "But what about Hikaru-kun?"

Kaoru's eyes widened. "I would never leave my beloved Hikaru," he said firmly. He was unconscious of his nails digging into the soft flesh of the base of his palm. His eyes followed his twin, who was holding a squirming Haruhi in his lap. "But if… if his interests lie with someone else… then… I just want him to be happy…" His hand moved smoothly to put the eye drops in, but the way his bruised arm knocked against the couch made it unnecessary. Moisture sprang into his eyes from the pain.

"Oh, Kaoru-kun!" the girls wailed, squeezing him tight with sympathy—also managing to hit all the spots where he had been knocked against the wall last night.

Oh, brother.

"Does it hurt?" Kyouya murmured by his side, appearing out of nowhere. Kaoru let out a little squeak and scooted away, causing the Shadow King to chuckle. "I'm not _that _bad, am I? I'm not going to eat you, Kaoru."

"Ah… yeah," Kaoru said, making room for him on the couch. Kyouya took his seat beside him and offered the girls a simple, charming smile, causing all of the 'princesses' to blush.

"You were the one who bruised Kaoru-kun?" one of them questioned.

Kyouya paused for just a moment, taking a sip of the fine quality tea that the Takada Catering group had delivered. "Why don't you tell them what happened, Kaoru?" he asked, voice like velvet.

Kaoru flushed. "I—I…" It was a lot harder to pull off this act without Hikaru. At least he knew Hikaru inside and out; he could read his twin like a book. Playing the part with Kyouya was like groping blindly in the darkness. "Kyouya-sempai, that's not appropriate for them to hear!" he finally said.

Kyouya didn't bother replying, only examined the bruises a little more carefully. He looked into Kaoru's eyes and knew that the tears weren't just from the eye drops. "I think you should put a little medicinal cream on those," he said. "I'm sure that they hurt."

"It's okay, sempai," Kaoru tried to insist. "They don't hurt a bit." Kyouya raised an eyebrow and with a swift gesture pressed his thumb lightly on one of the markings.

"OUCH! YOU F—!

Kaoru reddened both from the expletives he had just let out and the looks of shock that the rest of the people in the room shot his way. Tamaki had dropped his teacup on the floor—Kyouya was definitely going to charge him for that later—and Mori was covering Hunny's ears while looking admonishingly at him. "Okay, they hurt just a little bit," he admitted, completely humiliated. "And I apologize for… speaking in language inappropriate for the ears of you princesses." He winced.

"That's okay, Kaoru-kun," they said, still a little taken aback. "After all, we know that you're in pain right now."

Kyouya nodded. "Come on, Kaoru." He put a soft smile on his face just for the girls. "Excuse us for a moment, ladies."

"Damn it, that hurt!" Kaoru whispered through clenched teeth.

"I know," Kyouya said. "That's why I dragged you here."

Kaoru bit his lip. "I'm surprised that you care, sempai."

"Don't get the wrong idea. Your efficiency will be lowered if you aren't in top physical condition," Kyouya said coldly. He hauled him behind the curtain but took care to handle the Hitachiin with care. "You can shrug off the top part of the kimono." Somehow he could make 'you can' sound like an order, and after hesitating just a moment, he obeyed.

"I never realized that we had so much medical stuff back here," Kaoru noted, taking in all the shiny equipment. There was even a dentist's chair, for heaven's sake. It made him wonder why they ever bothered using the infirmary when they had all of this in the music room.

Kyouya came up after rummaging in the boxes for a small tin of balm. "Yes, well, I had it completed just a couple of weeks earlier." He put a tiny amount of the cream onto his hand. "I thought that it was wise, considering just exactly who our king is."

Kaoru laughed. "True. Milord _is _accident-prone."

"That," Kyouya said, "is obvious." He sighed. "Stupid Tamaki." He heard a muffled noise of rage, and people shushing that person. Both he and Kaoru exchanged looks. Then his dark eyes wandered over the curtain, where he saw a shadow. A smirk spread slowly on his face. "We have an audience," he murmured too softly for anyone to hear.

Kaoru smiled impishly. "Oh really?" He checked the figures silhouetted conspicuously on the other side. "That's Renge, to be sure. Mori-sempai and Hunny-sempai. And I think that's Tamaki… and the customers." He felt a pang of regret when he recognized Hikaru's outline melding seamlessly into Haruhi's. Small comfort that Tamaki's shadow was basically impossible to tell apart from Haruhi's as well.

"I believe Tamaki and Hikaru are… how do they say it? 'Glomping' Haruhi," Kyouya said dryly. "They're all looking for something juicy to overhear." He raised his voice slightly as he smeared some of the cool balm onto Kaoru's skin. "Feels good?"

"A-ah, yeah," Kaoru said, grinning. His eyes widened. "Ah!" he said, as Kyouya accidentally pressed too hard on one spot. "Kyouya-sempai!"

"Sorry, I'll try to be a little gentler," Kyouya said, smirking. They heard the distinct sound of a 'Kyaa!' from the other side of the curtain, and the two of them shook with suppressed laughter.

"No, it's okay, sempai… that feels amazing," Kaoru said.

At that, the curtain was ripped open. Hikaru and Tamaki were both staring, furious and breathing hard, at the two of them.

"Yes?" Kyouya asked. Even though Kaoru had his top off, the tin of healing salve that Kyouya was holding justified anything. "Did you need anything?"

"Ah… nothing," Tamaki and Hikaru said, both blushing to the roots of their hair.

* * *

Okay, so Kaoru had had fun tricking Hikaru and the others. But now Hikaru was annoyed at him. "Look, I'm sorry, okay?" he said for the thousandth time. "Kyouya-sempai and I were only trying to pull some fun on milord and the customers."

Hikaru glared at him. "You made me look stupid."

It was time to pull the guilt card. "Yeah, well, you made me look like a zebra," Kaoru said, indicating the black marks on his white skin.

Blanching at the offhand remark, Hikaru muttered, "Okay, I'm sorry too." He suddenly grinned. "Hey Kaoru, remember how we said we would give Kyouya-sempai some trouble?"

Kaoru paled. "Yeah, I remember," he muttered. "Are we going through with that?"

"Sure we are!" Hikaru said enthusiastically. "Come on, we're going to start with phase one."

"Phase one?" Kaoru echoed. "You didn't tell me about the plan at all."

"Kaoru-kun!" his customers called out. Their eyes sparkled when they saw Hikaru with him. "And Hikaru-kun, are you coming back?"

"Yeah," Hikaru said, positively beaming at them. Kaoru frowned; the smile was devious, and he didn't like it one bit when Hikaru smiled that way—at least, when it was _only _Hikaru smiling that way. He preferred it when their expressions mirrored each other's. With a weary sigh, He allowed his brother to drag him back to the girls.

"Um… Hikaru… what exactly does phase one entail?"

"I don't know, actually," his brother said nonchalantly. "If I knew, I would have told you. But let's just wing it for now."

"Just… just wing it," Kaoru repeated, feeling a small measure of relief at the words. That was good. Usually Hikaru had some elaborate plan in mind—which usually never went according to their carefully laid preparations, but always had some explosive effect anyway. "Okay…"

"Kyouya-sama already left to join his own customers," one of the girls sighed. "What a pity…" Then she glanced slyly up at Hikaru. "Don't you care in the least that your brother is involved with Kyouya-sama?"

Hikaru paused. "But of course," he said. "I love Kaoru, body and soul."

"But you're always with Haruhi-kun," one of girls noted.

"Eh, Haruhi's our best friend!" Hikaru protested. "I would never let anyone else have my brother. But it looks like… like someone stole you from me, my beloved Kaoru."

Kaoru flushed. "Hi-Hikaru, of course not," he said. "I… I tried to…"

"Ssh, it's okay. I don't blame you for what happened," Hikaru crooned, tilting his twin's chin so that Kaoru was gazing up at him. "Although knowing that sempai touched you in places where only _I'm _supposed to touch…"

For some reason Kaoru was irritated. Maybe it was the act that was grating on his nerves. The way that Hikaru looked at him, as though he loved him. That light in those mischievous eyes… well, he knew well that Hikaru didn't love him, whatever his actions might have suggested. He didn't reply, causing his brother to halt their act and look at him in confusion.

"I think I'm a bit tired," Kaoru said, knowing that Hikaru wanted an explanation. He didn't really feel like providing one, but just because he was annoyed at his twin didn't mean that he had fallen out of love with him.

And he _was _in love with Hikaru, much as he despised himself for it.

"Oh, okay," Hikaru said after a moment's silence. The girls watched them quizzically.

Kaoru forced a smile on his face. "So, whatever happened to phase one?"

Hikaru grinned again. "It starts now."

* * *

A/N: Phew, glad that's over... Cliffhanger, anyone? Haha. 

Anyway, I'll try to update soon, but I have yet MORE exams tomorrow... and then a contest... and then training... and then more contests... so you get the picture, right? I'm actually supposed to be writing an essay, but I'm skiving off at the moment. Lol. Anyway, forgive the slap-dash job I did at the moment. I'll try to make the next chapter a bit better, if I don't rush it.

And, as always, more reviews equal faster updates! Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed, and remember, I reply to any and all reviews.


	3. Realizations and the Shadow's Heart

A/N: Apologies for the super-late update. I've been crazy-buzy with contests and tests and my other fics. Anyway, thank you to everyone who reviewed my story--you all deserve a big bowl of ginger ice cream, specially made by... well, you'll see. This is a bit of a slapdash job, and written when I was in a clearly emo mood. Anyway, it isn't as funny as I would have liked it to be, but I hope that you like it all the same!

Anyway, without further ado, I present to you Chapter Two.

* * *

Chapter Two: Realizations and the Shadow's Heart

Apparently phase one of the plan involved maple syrup and Tamaki.

No, they didn't drench Tamaki in maple syrup and leave him in Kyouya's bed. Although that would have been a nice plan, in retrospect…

Kaoru checked his watch from the other side of the room. The whole day he had been acting the part of Hitachiin Hikaru so flawlessly that even Haruhi hadn't been clued in. Yeah, his brother had gotten mildly pissed off at him for flirting with Haruhi, but he explained that it was part of his I'm-actually-Hikaru disguise.

Hikaru had done splendidly so far. In fact, the barely suppressed jealousy that he had shown when Kaoru had been touching Haruhi had only helped their act. They were wearing each other's clothes, watches, shoes… not that it made much of a difference, since they were exactly the same. And then Kaoru had managed to cover up the bruises with concealer, while Hikaru created new ones on his body (in just the right places) with some of their costume makeup.

Sometimes Kaoru caught sight of himself in the mirror and actually thought that he was Hikaru. But he had more important things than an identity crisis on his mind.

Kyouya didn't even blink as he frowned at the sticky goop all over his hair. Slowly, his hand moved to still the dripping. "Hikaru…"

"I'm Kaoru, sempai," he said in the best imitation he could pull off. "And I'm sorry, it was an accident."

An 'accident' that was magnificently orchestrated by somehow tripping over Tamaki's teddy bear (hence Tamaki's part in 'phase one') while the fake Kaoru was carrying a bottle of maple syrup for cooking class.

Actually, their original idea had involved a rather more elaborate setup, including blenders, painter's easels, a rather old bust of some dead guy, and a lot of string. And Tamaki. He always seemed to get involved in their plans. Unfortunately, their plan relied heavily on getting Kyouya to trip over something—and being was something that the Shadow King would never ever be. So they had settled on Hikaru doing the tripping. It lacked the finesse of their usual plans—or rather, their typical botching of their intended finesse. This time, it was simple, and carried off perfectly.

And in any case, Hikaru was imitating Kaoru so well that Kaoru almost believed that he was looking at himself. "I'm re-really sorry, sempai," he stammered.

Haruhi nodded. "Hikaru's over here with me," she said, obviously exasperated at the way Kaoru was incessantly tickling her. "Stop it, Hikaru," she muttered, batting at Kaoru's hands.

"For once you're wrong, Haruhi," Kyouya said. "_This_ is _Hikaru_. _That _is _Kaoru._"

"Better get your eyes examined, sempai," Kaoru said with a smirk in true Hikaru style. "But it wasn't Kaoru's fault. It was milord with his huge, clumsy feet in the way as usual."

Kyouya scowled at him. "You can fool everyone else, but you can't fool me," he said dangerously. "But I take what you said to mean that you were planning all this from the very beginning. The two of you are going to have to offer compensation for this later." He glared. Now he would be late for the host club opening, seeing as he had to scrub off all the gunk that was on his shoulders.

When he left, Haruhi looked at the two of them. "Is it true?" she asked softly. Her eyes widened when she saw Kaoru's expression of inner turmoil plastered on what she thought to be Hikaru's face. And Hikaru's I-just-got-sucker-punched look was all over the person who had claimed to be Kaoru. "I didn't realize." She bit her lip. She had thought that telling them apart would be easy by now, but it looked like when the two of them really made an effort, they could still trick her.

"It's true," Kaoru said, covering his mouth with one hand. He felt like he was going to be sick. Haruhi couldn't distinguish between the two of them, so they thought that their joke was faultless. And Kyouya had seen through it instantly.

Hikaru nodded slowly. "That damn Shadow King sees everything," he muttered, shoving his hands into his pocket, dropping the pretense. "You think that maybe he just put some kind of tracking bug on one of us so that he can tell us apart or something?"

"Kyou-chan watches," Hunny burst in. "He watches everyone and everything, and he memorizes it all. That's why Kyou-chan knows that Hika-chan is Hika-chan and Kao-chan is Kao-chan."

"I guess that makes sense," Haruhi agreed. "But you know, you guys acted so perfectly that I couldn't tell at all. Okay, maybe there was something just a little bit off about it, but on the whole it's like you're each other."

"It was easy," Kaoru said with a shaky laugh. "God knows that I've known Hikaru all my life."

"Yeah, but you're you, and I'm me," Hikaru pointed out. "And this discussion is getting _way _too philosophical for me." He punched his fist into the air. "Phase one has backfired. Now the question is whether we should commence with phase two or just give up the game."

"Give up the game?" Kaoru echoed.

"Yeah," Hikaru said. "I mean, if Kyouya-sempai knows who's who even when Haruhi doesn't, there's no point in trying to do anything more. It would have been okay to mess with him when he didn't know which one of us was which, but now…" He shrugged. "I don't know, maybe this is actually even better—we're growing, aren't we? I guess it's just because we're so different, that's all."

_Different. Yeah. _He didn't want to be different. He wanted to be with his brother. His _twin._ He didn't want to be just Kaoru. Frankly, the thought of it scared him. He felt a brief flash of hatred for Kyouya for destroying their last defense against the rest of the world. He had taken his brother away from him in a way that Haruhi never had. Haruhi could be accepted into their world. But Kyouya rejected their world, carelessly tramping all over it without a thought for how they might have felt. Kaoru wondered whether it would be as though their world had never existed at all.

But he would remember, at least.

He slumped in his seat for a moment before getting up. "I just need some aspirin," he said, answering Hikaru's unvoiced question. But then he realized that Hikaru wasn't looking at him at all, and hadn't been asking—not even unconsciously.

* * *

Kyouya emerged from the dressing room, his hair still damp from washing out all that maple syrup. Honestly, he would kill those twins, if he had anything to say about it. It was lucky that he always kept a spare uniform for emergencies. Then his mind registered the fact that there was someone else in the back with him. "Tamaki," he said. "What are you doing here?"

"Just checking to see how you're doing, mother," Tamaki said. "Those devilish twins—"

"I'm fine," he interrupted. He ran a hand through the wet black locks. "It was nothing that couldn't be fixed. Lucky for them." He took a seat and removed his glasses with a sigh. It was amazing what a difference it made, just to remove his glasses. It made him look a little more vulnerable. He looked up. "You knew that it wasn't all that important, Tamaki. So why does it matter so much to you?"

Tamaki frowned. "It doesn't," he said carelessly.

"Tamaki…" Kyouya wondered whether the maple syrup had made his brain sticky or had affected his mind somehow, because his mouth seemed to be moving of its own accord, ignoring the warnings that he was silently screaming at it. "I…" He had kept it a secret for a while now, and now it was threatening to burst out of him. His voice was so soft that the king barely seemed to hear it. "Tamaki, I lo—"

"I'll be going back now, mother," Tamaki said. "I want to check on our beloved daughter—she can't be left too long with that evil Hitachiin." Then he looked anxiously at Kyouya. "Do you think that she likes Hikaru?"

"She likes us all," Kyouya deadpanned, not knowing whether he ought to be relieved or annoyed that Tamaki had interrupted. "Even you, hard as it may be to believe."

Tamaki didn't know whether to be offended or happy. "No, I mean… as a lover."

Trust Tamaki to use that word. "Lover would hardly be an appropriate term unless they were involved in a full-blown physical relationship," Kyouya said. "And I'm sure that they haven't gone that far."

"How do you know?"

What a stupid question. "I just do," Kyouya said. And there was no point questioning him any further on that, because Kyouya basically knew everything anyway—never mind that he didn't explain how or why.

"You know, mother, I think that I'm… I'm in love with Haruhi."

Kyouya went cold. There it was: the final stroke that undid any last hope he might have had for himself. "I see," he said, nodding. "I anticipated this." And he had, only he had denied it, tried to search for evidence pointing to the contrary—even if it was just a smile in his direction or the way that Tamaki relied on him. But damn it, that was all friendship and nothing more. "You'll have to work hard for her to take notice of you, but I believe that it's possible. Of course, you have a lot of competition. Hikaru is just one of us, and I believe that it would be difficult not to be attracted to Haruhi."

"You mean that you like her yourself, mother?"

The Shadow King wanted to laugh at the irony of it all. "Not at this point in time, Tamaki."

Tamaki was relieved. "That's good. I think that if you ever fell in love, you would have whoever it is under your spell somehow, because you never give up." He cracked a smile. "You succeed at everything you do, after all. You always get what you want."

"That's just your assumption. I assure you that it's quite the opposite," Kyouya said, getting to his feet. "Now go on ahead, the club will open in a while." He hesitated, unaware of how innocent and lost he seemed with his dark eyes exposed that way, the uncertainty creeping into the tunnel-like depths. "Tamaki, I…"

"Yeah, what?"

Rational thinking kicked in at just the right moment. "I wish you luck with your endeavor," he said dryly, destroying the vulnerable expression on his face. "Now hurry up."

"Don't you want me to wait for you?"

Kyouya clenched his fists. "It would be very pointless," he said. "Go on."

Kaoru watched the interactions from the sidelines, so absorbed that he completely forgot about the aspirin that he now clutched in his hand. He watched the Shadow King gaze at Tamaki as the blonde sailed away, obviously not realizing that something was very wrong.

"Damn it!" Kyouya burst out, his fist flying before he could control himself. He hit the wall with a sickening crack, and Kaoru winced as he saw the Shadow King spill his own blood out of mindless rage. He laughed darkly to himself. "So, 'I always get what I want'. So, I 'don't want you to wait for me'. Moron! How could I fall in love with a fool like that?"

Kaoru bit back a gasp, his eyes riveted on the dark-haired figure as the Shadow King composed himself, his posture straightening as he combed his hair to glossy perfection. Kyouya… and Tamaki?

All the anger that he had been feeling towards Kyouya suddenly disappeared. Pain. That was something he knew enough of. And apparently Kyouya was human and vulnerable enough to succumb to it too, hard though it was to believe that the 'man-of-steel' Shadow King was weak in any way.

No, he wasn't angry at him anymore. If anything, his heart went out to the older boy.

Suddenly Kyouya's eyes hardened, and he slipped his glasses on again. "Who's there?" he called out.

The redhead figured that Kyouya had a right to know that he had overheard the whole thing. "It's me, sempai," he said, slipping out. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop. I just came to get some aspirin, but you were talking aloud…"

Kyouya inhaled sharply. "I see." It wasn't the Hitachiin's fault. At least he knew that much. He was proud that he could still think logically, even though he was emotionally distraught. "Kaoru, would you mind not mentioning this to anyone?" His tone made his request sound suspiciously like a threat, even to his own ears. He looked away. "I just… that was very foolish of me. I don't normally talk to myself."

"You were under some strange circumstances, sempai," Kaoru said softly. "I think I understand why you did what you did." He took hold of Kyouya's hand. "You're bleeding, sempai. We should bandage this."

"It's all right, I can do it myself," Kyouya said, but Kaoru was already pulling out the first aid kid. He remained blank-faced when the antiseptic was applied, although it probably hurt. "I don't want your pity, Kaoru," he said flatly.

"I'm not pitying you, sempai." Kaoru finished it by wrapping the bandage neatly around his bloody knuckles. "I'm sympathizing with you."

"You mean because of Hikaru," Kyouya said, nodding. "You get what I mean."

"Yes," Kaoru said evenly. There. He had admitted it. What did he have to lose? Kyouya wouldn't tell anyone—and he had everything to gain: Kyouya could trust him. He understood.

Kyouya sighed. "I don't want to go and face them right now," he admitted.

"Then let's not," Kaoru suggested. He tugged at Kyouya's hand. "Let's go somewhere else, where we don't have to see them." He saw the doubt in the Shadow King's eyes and knew that he was calculating the benefits. "There may be no profit in it, but at least we don't have to get hurt watching them… at least, not now."

They heard Tamaki's laughter from outside. "Haruhi, my precious daughter!" Then there was Hikaru's voice, saying something like, "Eh, milord, that's sexual harassment!" The two behind the curtain both clenched their fists and tried to block out the noise to no avail.

Kyouya's expression tightened. "Let's go."

* * *

"Where are you?" Hikaru roared into his cellphone, causing some of the customers to let out frightened little gasps and scuttle away from him. Tamaki was doing the same, panicking because Kyouya was nowhere to be found as he kept dialing and redialing the Shadow King's cellphone number.

"Kyaa! They're probably together!" the girls squealed. Renge already had an evil grin plastered on her face as she planned her next doujinshi, devoted to 'Kyouya and Kaoru's budding relationship'.

Kaoru winced and held his own phone away from his ear. "You're too loud, Hikaru," he said, unaware that his brother had put him on speakerphone. The customers flocked around Hikaru, trying to hear what the younger Hitachiin was saying. "There's no need to yell at me like that."

Besides, he had Hikaru on speakerphone too, and Kyouya was listening to every word.

"You're not answering the question, idiot!" But some of his anger was slowly ebbing away. Tamaki had been filling his head with nonsense about how it was possible that Kaoru or Kyouya had been kidnapped, or some other whatnot. At worst, Haruhi had volunteered the possibility that Kaoru might have been knocked out cold somehow (getting hit on the head or some other way of sustaining a head injury), and he had gone into protective-older-brother mode.

"Well, I'm skipping club activities today," Kaoru returned. He hadn't been answering Hikaru's calls for the past half hour—nor had Kyouya deigned to answer Tamaki's—but eventually Kyouya decided that they better at least let them know that they were safe, reminding Kaoru of the incident where they all went to see Haruhi by helicopter over the summer when Tamaki thought that something had happened to her. The host club king _was _prone to overreacting.

"And why would that be?" Tamaki burst in.

Kaoru was silent a moment, watching Kyouya pour them both some tea. "Hikaru… do you have me on speakerphone?"

Hikaru blushed guiltily. "Yeah, but it's just the rest of the host club," he lied, gesturing for the girls to stay silent. "They're worried about you too."

Kyouya chuckled from the background, too low for them to hear. "And what about me?" he whispered to Kaoru, causing the redhead to laugh. "Don't I get a mention?"

"What're you laughing about?" Hikaru asked suspiciously. "And you haven't said anything about why you're not coming to club."

"And have you seen Kyouya anywhere?" Tamaki added.

Kyouya finally decided to step in. "I'm afraid that Kaoru's absence is my fault," he said into the phone, his voice coming out in a rich purr. Kaoru covered his mouth in shock and tried to take it back from him, but Kyouya shook his head and gestured that he would take care of it. "Kaoru and I are busy taking care of something."

The girls flushed and looked ready to explode with a barrage of 'Kyaa!' fireworks, but thankfully Hunny and Mori managed to keep them quiet. "What do you mean, busy?" Hikaru and Tamaki cried out at the same time.

"Busy in a way that is none of your business," Kyouya said coolly. Did he really have to justify running off to have tea with Kaoru in the Ootori mansion? "We realize that this is inconvenient for the club, but surely you can do without us today."

"You kidnapped my brother!" Hikaru yelled into the phone.

Kaoru felt a shiver run down his spine. _Finally, _Hikaru was paying attention to him. "He didn't kidnap me," he replied. "I was the one who invited him to skip club."

Renge let out a barely-suppressed screech of delight. _Kaoru _was the one taking the lead in their relationship? Did that mean that he was the _seme, _or was it just that he was the perfect _uke _leading on Kyouya?

"And he agreed?" Tamaki said, obviously hysterical. "I _knew _that you were under the spell of those devilish twins, Kyouya!"

The Shadow King smiled darkly. "Yes, perhaps I _am _under a spell, Tamaki, but not of the kind that you think," he said. And with that, he ended the call. He glanced at Kaoru. "I apologize, I shouldn't have hung up without letting you at least say goodbye to your brother."

Kaoru sipped his tea and shrugged. "It doesn't really matter." He was silent a moment. "It's been a while since he paid attention to me like that."

"Tamaki was upset too," Kyouya agreed. The phone began ringing again. They looked at it, then at each other, and by silent agreement neither of them moved to answer it. "They care about us quite a lot right now. But in the end, they'll both go back to Haruhi, won't they?"

"I want to hate him for it," Kaoru said softly. "But I can't." He looked up at Kyouya. "What are we going to tell them? We have to give them a reason why we skipped club."

"Of course we don't," Kyouya said matter-of-factly. "Why should we explain ourselves to them? Just because we love them?" He sighed. "I lie to Tamaki all the time." It was the first time he had been candid about his feelings for the host club king to anyone. He smiled a little to himself. It was stupid to the extreme, but he trusted Hitachiin Kaoru.

* * *

But then, that night and the next day were nightmarish. Kyouya blocked Tamaki's calls after the blonde king refused to let the matter slide, and was even pushed to the point of telling security to bar the young Suoh from entrance to the grounds. Fuyumi almost made the mistake of allowing him to come in, but Kyouya stopped her just in time to growl out a warning that scared even his sister, who was usually unflappable even in the face of his wrath. He was just glad that his father wasn't home; otherwise he would have had to come up with a _very, very _good explanation of why he was locking out the Suoh heir (and no, having a broken heart was _not _a good explanation).

Kaoru, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. Hikaru was his brother, after all, and therefore couldn't be avoided easily. He got through the evening only by counting on Haruhi to pull through for him, and she did so with understanding after he secretly asked her to restrain his brother a little (although perhaps she was still doubtful about what was going on with him and Kyouya). Tamaki had even turned to her and Hikaru for help with the complaint that 'mother was shunning him' because of 'that devilish younger Hitachiin' and when he had been over, had yelled at the younger Hitachiin until Haruhi finally succeeded in knocking him out cold. He bore their complaints with fortitude, refusing to speak about the matter and keeping his headphones planted firmly on his ears.

The customers were worse when they went to the club during a free period just before their lunch break. They couldn't be ignored—they would have lost profits, and Kyouya would _not _allow that to happen. But instead, Kaoru had devised the strategy of gently telling them that he wasn't ready to air out what was going on to the public, and Kyouya answered that since Kaoru wasn't comfortable with telling them, he would defer to the redhead's wishes. That only made the girls swoon all the more, but the rest of the host club watched them even more closely when they fed that line to their adoring customers. There was already a new fan club made just for the new Kyouya-Kaoru pairing, headed of course by Renge.

"Kyou-chan," Hunny said softly. "Don't break his heart now, all right?"

Kyouya nearly jumped a mile, but he curbed that particular, embarrassing impulse. "May I know whom exactly you happen to be pertaining to?" he asked.

The senior offered him a simple smile. "Kao-chan. He's already hurt over Hika-chan, so…"

The Shadow King wanted to tell him that he was mistaken, but all he said was, "Don't jump to conclusions too soon, Hunny-sempai." It was better that they supposed and speculated, better that he didn't do anything to confirm or deny one way or another. Otherwise he had to be prepared to admit that Kaoru had coaxed him out of club activities to help him deal with a pathetic, broken heart.

"Does that mean that you and Kao-chan aren't involved?" Hunny probed.

Kaoru tugged on Kyouya's arm. "Sempai," he said, effectively rescuing him. "Want to have lunch together?"

"I usually have lunch with…" He paused. Kaoru widened his eyes (he had Bambi Eyes to rival Tamaki's Puppy-Dog Eyes) and pretended to move a little closer to him to make the sudden hesitation a little more normal. It was kind of like his acts with Hikaru, but a little more difficult because he couldn't judge how the Shadow King would ask. "All right," he agreed. He really wasn't ready to face Tamaki right now.

"Eh, you don't want to eat with us today?" Haruhi asked Kaoru.

"No thanks, you have a good lunch with Hikaru," Kaoru said.

"Also not ready to face Hikaru?" Kyouya asked softly.

"Nope, not when we're so 'different', as he says," Kaoru returned. "And besides, I thought that you would need some help with milord."

"Thank you," Kyouya said, relieved.

"What would you have done if I hadn't stepped in all of the sudden?" he asked.

"I would probably have had to endure that idiot chattering about Haruhi. Or watched while he chased Haruhi around the cafeteria." His face twisted. "Or I could have just skipped lunch."

"Not good, you're already thin enough as it is," Kaoru pronounced. "You should eat more. You look good with a slender frame, but it isn't as appealing when you're all skin and bones."

Kyouya smirked. "I get all my required nutrients. I am an Ootori, after all, and we're in the medical business."

"Come on then, let's eat," Kaoru said, pulling at his arm. "And you have to buy me lunch because I saved your neck."

* * *

"He's buying him lunch!" Tamaki said in disbelief. "Mother would never do that. Usually he's the one who gets the lunch bought for him!"

"That's because he's a tight-fisted asshole," Hikaru decreed, stabbing moodily into his steak and buttered vegetables. Haruhi sighed and picked at her food. Her appetite wasn't exactly helped by the fact that she was sitting next to a hysterical host king and a homicidal twin.

"Don't talk about Kyouya like that!" Tamaki said angrily.

"Hikaru, try to control yourself a bit," Haruhi said, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder to stop him from mauling the expensive beef. Those poor cows died in vain… "You're overreacting. He and Kaoru are just having lunch, that's all."

Kaoru put down his tray of food. "Don't you buy lunch, sempai?"

"No, I have it delivered by my guards. Our chef makes the lunch according to my preferences." Kyouya went beyond even the typical Ouran opulence; most of the students simply bought their food from the cafeteria or brought it to school themselves. He, on the other hand, could afford to have it brought to him everyday. He had a dish of finely sliced sushi with extra wasabi, a glass of tonic water, and oddly enough, a bowl containing a single scoop of creamy yellowish ice cream that was still cold.

"Okay, I get the sushi," Kaoru said, using his chopsticks to place a bite of his chicken into his mouth, "and I understand the tonic water perfectly. That's so Ootori Kyouya. But ice cream? I thought you didn't like sweet stuff."

"I don't," Kyouya agreed. "Here, try some." He handed Kaoru an extra ice cream fork (for he was too refined to use spoons; how common). His guards always delivered multiple silverware sets, just in case Tamaki wanted some of Kyouya's food.

Kaoru tasted it. "Wow, that's genius. Ginger ice cream," he said, licking at the remainder on his fork. It was sweet and tangy at the same time, the two contrasting flavors bringing each other out. "It's good."

"Thank you. I made it myself, but don't let that fact get out," Kyouya said, helping himself to some of the sushi. Being a good cook wasn't exactly in keeping with his image of cool, although his justification was that if he were ever stuck out there without his guards, without any way to survive, he had to learn how to cook. And if he was going to cook, he was going be damn good at it.

The young Hitachiin smirked. "You care too much about what other people think," he pronounced, reading his mind. "But it's delicious. You should market this stuff."

Kyouya pushed the ice cream towards him, for once not calculating the profits if he really did try to market his homemade ginger ice cream. "I have extra," he said, snapping his fingers. Impressively, a guard emerged out of nowhere and put down another bowl in front of him before vanishing as unexpectedly as he had appeared.

"Now _that's _good service," Kaoru said, laughing as the rest of the cafeteria looked a bit stunned but carried on with their business. It _was _Kyouya Ootori, after all.

The Shadow King couldn't help smiling a bit. "Yes, well, they were trained that way. And they know well enough to always have a second portion, in case something arises." He frowned when he remembered the many times that Tamaki happened to knock over his food. With an inward snort, he ate some of his sushi.

"You're thinking too much," Kaoru said.

"And _you_ are a messy eater," Kyouya said. The boy had gotten some ice cream at the corner of his lip, and he pulled out a napkin and impatiently wiped at the spot.

"He's _touching my brother,_" Hikaru said in a low tone. "I will kill him and bury him ten times over."

"Mother has fallen into the clutches of that greasy devil!" Tamaki wailed.

Haruhi sighed and buried her head in her hands, trying unsuccessfully to ignore the pair on her left and right.

"They're making a scene," Kaoru commented, forking more ice cream into his mouth. It really was delicious, and he left his chicken basically untouched.

"I know. And if you make me go to the trouble of paying for your food, you should eat it," Kyouya said, taking the chopsticks and expertly picking up one of the pieces of chicken. He held it out to Kaoru, who unexpectedly just opened his mouth and leaned forward—Kaoru seemed to be enjoying the fact that he was enraging his brother. Kyouya deposited the chicken in his mouth. "You're too lazy," he scolded as Kaoru chewed.

Kaoru smiled. "Actually, it's kind of fun having someone feeding you. Plus it's just a refreshing change, having Hikaru watch me like that instead of the other way around."

"It's an illusion. All of it is," Kyouya said. "For me, anyway. Who knows, maybe Hikaru really does love you back the way you want him to. But I've already realized that whatever protective instincts that idiot is displaying right now when I'm with you are just friendly." He probed Kaoru's eyes with his own. "Until you find out the absolute truth, you can't give up, can you?"

"No." Kaoru sighed. "But I don't know what I'll do once he tells me. I'm just waiting for the moment when he says, 'I'm in love with Haruhi'." He looked up at Kyouya. "You remember the time that I set them up on a date?"

"Yes. I asked you that time whether you minded that his feelings would turn into love."

"I told you that he was too dense to realize it at the time. But even then, I think that I knew that he _would _realize them eventually." Kaoru lowered his eyes in a bizarre reminder of his typical uke-act. "I knew."

"We both did," Kyouya said softly.

* * *

For the rest of the week, for the official club activities, Hikaru kept Kaoru imprisoned by his side. But Kaoru didn't really think it was fair, especially not when Hikaru _also _kept _Haruhi_ there with him. Besides that, he felt virtually ignored when the two of them got together. The only time Hikaru paid attention to him was when he tried to escape.

Then again, Kyouya was faring even worse. He had to listen to Tamaki's mindless jabbering and endless strategizing of how to steal Haruhi's heart. It was driving Kyouya insane, and he was actually contemplating quitting the club. But if he did, he was afraid that Tamaki would see through it and find out the real reason why he was so vexed whenever Tamaki brought up the subject of Haruhi.

Kaoru tried to wriggle away again, only to find Hikaru's hand clamping painfully down on his arm. "You're not going anywhere," Hikaru said dangerously.

Kyouya had finally had enough. He stood up, ignoring Tamaki's wail of, "Wait, I'm not finished yet!" and headed over to the twins. "Hikaru, release Kaoru. You seem to be forgetting that he's still bruised."

Hikaru let go of Kaoru, still feeling a bit guilty about that incident. Ever since then, Kaoru had taken to sleeping on the floor, or sometimes he napped in the afternoons and kept awake at night. Still, it was hard for Kaoru, and he knew it. "Yeah, but he's still staying here," he said.

The girls looked from Hikaru to Kyouya. "Ah… Hikaru?" Kaoru said, gently prying his brother's fingers off him. "I think we need to talk." He gave Haruhi a quick smile. "You don't mind, do you?" She shook her head. "Ladies?" The girls just shrugged. He glanced at Kyouya, who nodded at him to go ahead.

"Hikaru," he said, pulling his brother into the back area. Hmm. They seemed to be using it a lot more lately. "What the hell is your problem?"

"What do you mean me?" Hikaru shot back.

Kaoru let out a frustrated sigh. "You mean aside from the fact that you've practically chained me to your side?"

Hikaru glared at him. "The second I let go of you, you go running to Kyouya! And it's not that I'm opposed to you having someone in your life, it's just that of all people, why him?"

He folded his arms across his chest defensively. "You don't get it, Hikaru. Kyouya and I aren't involved! It just happens that we actually understand some things about each other."

"You have _me_."

"You don't understand this!" he hurled back, finally reaching the end of his legendary, supposedly infinite patience.

"And _he_ does?"

Kaoru sucked in a breath. "Yes, he does."

They stared at each other, dazed by the enormity of what Kaoru had just said.

"But… that completely throws the club off-balance, if you go along with Kyouya-sempai," Hikaru said, as though what Kaoru had just said had had no bearing. Or rather, as though he was trying to forget that Kaoru even said it in the first place. "It's always been Mori-sempai and Hunny-sempai, and then Kyouya-sempai and milord. And it's us three—you, me, and Haruhi."

Kaoru felt like giving up the talk and just hitting him, but he didn't. "Things change, Hikaru. If you think that I wanted them to change this way, you're wrong." He looked at his brother and finally asked the question. "Hikaru… tell me what you feel for Haruhi."

Hikaru's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish's. "I… I… er…"

Looking away, Kaoru mumbled, "Tell me, do you love her?"

"I… yeah." Hikaru frowned, staring down at his feet. "I do. A lot. And I think that she sort of-kind of-likes me back, just a bit."

"Have you told her?" Kaoru asked.

"Nope, not yet. You're the first to know, at least." Hikaru flashed him a smile.

Yeah. At least. "Listen, Hikaru, I think that I've known for quite a while now," Kaoru said slowly. "And… and I'm happy for you both. Or at least, I will be when you finally get the guts to ask her out." He offered his brother a tentative smile.

"You mean you're not interested in Haruhi yourself?" Hikaru asked. "You watch her a lot."

_No, you idiot. I watch _you _a lot. It just so happens that wherever Haruhi is, there you are—so I can't really help watching her, can I? _"Nah. Not in the way that you think." _I'm interested in her as a friend and rival. _But then he realized he wasn't a rival, not when he had no choice but to drop out of the game.

He felt as though someone had just knocked the wind out of him—literally. Suddenly he was choking, clawing at his throat. "A… ack!" he managed to cough out as he felt strangely stifled. He couldn't breathe.

"K… Kaoru?" Hikaru said in alarm as his twin started to hyperventilate. "Kaoru! What's wrong?" He raised his voice and began yelling his head off for someone to come help them.

_Eh… did I just die from heartbreak_? Kaoru wondered vaguely as the world went black.

* * *

A/N: Cliffhanger alert! Gosh, I'm sorry I had to rush through writing this chapter, but I still have to memorize a speech for a contest day after tomorrow. And I've memorized basically... nothing, so far. How crappy is that? Anyway, as always, I'm unsure as to when I can update. I have an idea for the next chapter... so I'll ask you guys: do you prefer commoner baking or a phone exchange between Kyouya and Kaoru?

Anyway, as ever, more reviews equals faster updates. Thanks for reading! Please review!


	4. Sweet Things

A/N: Just posting in between 'working' on my thesis. Or pretending to, anyway. I should be at school... but I'm not. Anyway, thank you to all who reviewed. Wish me luck on my Physics exam later. I'm totally screwed because I spent the night watching anime and typing this instead of studying for it. But then again, who wouldn't? Oh yeah, the responsible people...

I waffled between the phone call and the commoner baking and then I finally hit on a bright idea! I did both. Haha. It was a bit difficult, but nothing TOO hard.

Anyway, without further ado, I present to you all Chapter Three.

* * *

Chapter Three: Sweet Things

"It was psychosomatic," Kyouya pronounced, taking off his glasses and pronouncing his diagnosis. As an Ootori, of course he had to have the best medical training as well; he couldn't just be someone on the sidelines like his brothers. He took the time to learn it himself.

He had just given Kaoru a mild sedative, and the young Hitachiin had been asleep for twenty minutes now. "But there were also signs of fatigue and overexertion. Hasn't he been sleeping properly?"

"Um…" Hikaru thought about it. "I think that he has, but… you know, it would be better if you just talked to Kaoru about this. I don't really get what to say."

Kyouya gave a frustrated growl. Hikaru didn't know his own brother's sleeping habits, even though they slept in the same room. "You haven't been kicking him off the bed again, have you?"

"Nah, we haven't slept in the same bed since that night."

The Shadow King frowned. "So he's been sleeping in another room. Well, I suppose that explains your lack of knowledge about his current—"

"Uh, he's not sleeping in another room," Hikaru confessed. "He stays on the floor, most nights… sometimes he stays awake the whole night instead…"

Kyouya took a deep breath. "I see," he said, as calmly as possible. But honestly, he wanted to yank out Hikaru's lungs and make a hat out of them. "I think that's mostly why he's so exhausted. You should take better care of your brother, Hikaru."

"O… okay," Hikaru said nervously. "I'll just wait with Haruhi and milord. Could you call me when he wakes up?"

"Of course," Kyouya said as he left. He seethed inside. He hated seeing that. Kaoru lavished all his attention on an imbecile of a brother who didn't give a damn about him at all. He checked his watch. The sedative was only supposed to stay in effect for half an hour. Kaoru would be waking up soon. He contemplated recalling Hikaru, but decided that the older Hitachiin wasn't worth it.

When he opened the door to the dressing rooms where Kaoru was stretched out on the couch, he saw that the redhead was already awake and blinking.

"How did I get here?" Kaoru asked.

"You were with Hikaru," Kyouya explained. "Then you started hyperventilating, and finally fainted. You woke up at some point after that, but I gave you a sedative to calm you down since you were still panicking. We didn't want what happened to be publicized any more than it already had, so they had me look at you instead of taking you to the infirmary. It wasn't exactly life-threatening anyway." He looked down at Kaoru without a trace of humor in his dark eyes. "You've been wearing yourself out, Kaoru."

Kaoru let out a little laugh. "Yeah, but from now on I'm going to stop sleeping on the floor," he said quietly.

"I see," Kyouya said. "So… what exactly did he say? Or did you ask him?"

He shrugged. "I asked him. He admitted it. End of story."

"Kaoru… your illness was partly caused by your emotional and mental state." Kyouya looked him squarely in the eye. To Kaoru's credit, he met the gaze unflinchingly. "The feelings that you have for your brother are destroying you. You can't let them consume you."

"I won't," Kaoru promised, his voice heavy. Kyouya was stronger than he was. He had dealt with Tamaki's easy admission so easily. True, he had engaged in a mindless act of masochism, but on the other hand, that was the only way he lost control. At least Kyouya hadn't done something like freak out and lose consciousness because of the incident. "I already decided to give him up." He tipped back his head to stop the tears from releasing themselves from his eyes.

If Kyouya could bear it, so could he.

Kyouya sighed. The boy was being a heroic fool, and he detested it. "Kaoru, you aren't me," he said, as though reading the young Hitachiin's mind. "If you want to cry, do so. I'm here. I will hear you out, just as you heard me out that day."

The floodgates opened. "I can't hate him!" he said, leaning his head on Kyouya's shoulder. "Damn him! I'm his twin. It was always just the two of us against the world. Doesn't that count for something? It should!" He choked back a sob. "If I had fallen in love with Haruhi, I wouldn't have ignored him. Even if I found someone else, I would never have neglected him the way he neglects me."

The Shadow King nodded, letting the redhead soak through his jacket. It would have to be dry-cleaned later, but when he weighed the option of charging Hikaru for it, he decided against it. Better to keep this a private matter. "I know," he said gently. It was the first time his tone had been so understanding. "You can cry all you want, Kaoru. It hurts, and maybe it'll be a little better this way."

"But you don't cry, Kyouya-sempai," he said, pushing himself away and looking mildly embarrassed at how he had behaved. "I just… I don't want to be weak." He gave a watery chuckle. "I don't know. I thought that I was the more mature one, emotionally. But it turns out that I'm the one who doesn't want to let go."

"Do you really think that you can?" Kyouya asked seriously.

"Yes," Kaoru confirmed. "I can." Then he quailed, his own strength and resolve failing him. "I…"

"Don't worry, I'll be here to help you," Kyouya assured him. Mentally, he reminded himself that it was also for benefits and not out of a silly, moral need to reach out and aid someone in distress.

"Really?" Kaoru asked.

Kyouya looked away. "Well, you did help me too. I would never have skipped club activities if it wasn't for you. Actually, now that I think about it, how does that constitute as help? We lost money because of our absence," he said thoughtfully.

Kaoru began to laugh. "Sempai! You think too much." He wiped at his face. "There are benefits that aren't necessarily about connections or money. There's also your own happiness to think of, and the happiness of those you care about." He looked up at Kyouya. "And I would prefer to think that that's really why you're doing this for me, instead of just because you want to get closer to the Hitachiin family."

"If I wanted just that, I wouldn't have antagonized Hikaru," Kyouya pointed out calmly. "I think that my unrequited love for Tamaki has already proved that I am not a heartless calculating machine."

"True," Kaoru said. He yawned. Stealthily, Kyouya injected him with another sedative. "Ouch! Kyouya… sempai…"

"Sleep a little longer," the Shadow King said softly as the redhead's eyes began to droop.

* * *

Kaoru was as good as his word. That evening he had his maids move all his things to another room, one that was a good distance away from Hikaru's. At first he was tempted to just take the room beside his twin's, but then he realized how absolutely pointless that would be.

"You don't have to move _that _far away," Hikaru said, annoyed. They were having dinner alone together; their parents were both away at business meetings. At first, Kaoru had tried to say that he wasn't hungry, but then Hikaru informed him that Kyouya had threatened him with bodily harm if he didn't see to it that Kaoru ate and slept well from now on. Apparently Kyouya had phrased it in such a way that Hikaru actually took it seriously. "I mean, the room beside ours—mine, I mean—is still empty."

"Hikaru… look, I want to sleep soundly at night, and I also want a bit of distance." He gave his brother a small smile. "I don't want it to be like what happened in club today—always being kept right there with you but it's still useless."

"Useless?" Hikaru echoed. "What the hell do you mean by that?"

Kaoru sighed. "Nothing." He forced down some of the food. "I'm really not hungry, Hikaru…" he whined. "I already ate a little."

"Kaoru-sama," one of the maids said timidly, interrupting their conversation.

He turned to look at her with a steely look in his eye. "Yeah?" The way he tossed out the word reminded them all of the time they had done something to one of the servants to place her in an insane asylum.

She gulped and took a few steps back. "Ah, Ootori-sama sent something. He said that you should eat, but if you didn't, he offered…" She trailed off. "He sent ice cream," she finished lamely.

Kaoru's angry expression vanished. "Really?" he asked hopefully. She nodded, relieved that he seemed to be getting back to his normal lovable self. "Then please send a dish of it up to my room. I'll eat it there."

"What's he doing sending ice cream to you for?" Hikaru asked. "You can just buy ice cream yourself."

The younger twin was about to say something about how he couldn't buy that, Kyouya made it especially that way, but he checked himself. He had promised Kyouya he wouldn't tell anyone. Hikaru caught the hastily swallowed retort. "What're you hiding?" he asked Kaoru, eyes narrowing.

"It's nothing, idiot," Kaoru said, getting to his feet. "And don't worry, Kyouya-sempai won't kill you just because I didn't finish all of my dinner. For all I know, he probably put in multivitamins into that ice cream." Actually, now that he thought about it, it was a very Kyouya thing to do. He smiled faintly.

"Look, it's not just that. I don't like it that Kyouya-sempai is paying so much attention to you," Hikaru said, balling up the linen napkin on his lap and tossing it onto the table angrily. "Kaoru… that guy doesn't do anything for no reason. You know that, right? I don't want him to use you."

Kaoru flushed. "He's not using me. See, that's just the thing, okay? He gets it; you don't."

"What?" Hikaru's brow furrowed. "But I thought that I was your twin. We tell each other everything."

The younger redhead let out a derisive snort. "You didn't even tell me about Haruhi until I flat-out asked you. I don't think you ever intended to tell me unless I pried your secret out of you—or until I had to find out with all the others. We don't tell each other everything anymore, Hikaru."

"But you tell it to Kyouya-sempai?" he demanded.

Kaoru inhaled sharply. "I didn't even have to tell him," he said coolly. "He already knew. I guess it's because he pays attention."

Hikaru didn't even clue in to the fact that Kaoru was implying that _he _didn't pay attention. Then again, subtlety wasn't exactly Hikaru's strong point. "It's all because he could tell us apart, wasn't it?" Hikaru asked, clenching his fists. "After that, you got all weird."

"Stop trying to justify it that way!" Kaoru hurled back. "Look, Hikaru—you can't have it both ways!" The atmosphere had grown unbearably tense; he realized that their servants had scattered, fleeing their battle for the sanctuary of their cleaning and cooking duties. _Lucky them,_ he thought wryly. "Look, I don't want to fight," he said. "So could we just let this stop here?"

"I'm not going to let you go for him," Hikaru said. Kaoru closed his eyes briefly, wondering whether Hikaru knew just what he was saying.

"You already let me go, Hikaru," Kaoru said quietly. "And now it's not up to you anymore."

* * *

Fuyumi poked her head into Kyouya's room. "Kyouya, phone for you." She kept doing that, even though her brothers (including Kyouya) repeatedly told her to leave that task to the servants.

Kyouya raised his eyebrows. It was rare that someone called for him specifically, and on the house phone. Normally if it was a business matter, people called him on the silver cellphone. Of course he also had a navy cellphone for everyday, but it was usually just Tamaki who called him on it. He didn't really give the number away to many people (well actually, he had just given it to Tamaki and his sister). "Who is it? If it's that idiot again—"

"No, it isn't Tamaki," Fuyumi said. "It's one of the Hitachiin family. Is it a business thing?"

He shook his head. "No," he said, not caring to elaborate further. He ignored the spark of curiosity in her eyes as he took the receiver from her before slamming the door shut and locking it. He had soundproofed his room long ago, and he knew that she wouldn't be able to eavesdrop. "Hello?"

"Kyouya-sempai…"

"Kaoru." He smiled. Kaoru sounded a lot more upbeat right now, although he could still detect a hint of sadness in the tone. It was strange; how he could tell how a person was feeling just from the way they said his name. "How are you?"

"Much better, thanks. And thanks for the ice cream. It's definitely just what I needed."

Kyouya smirked. He had actually bought in to the cliché of ice cream helping to mend a broken heart. After all, he had a debt to Kaoru—and he wasn't about to let it slide; he preferred having all accounts settled, whether it was a financial debt or one of honor. Besides, he couldn't have the freshman have any dirt on him. It would be prudent to cultivate his friendship, just in case he decided to tell Tamaki about his little outburst… "I didn't really think that you would feel like eating much right now," he explained. "I'm glad that you like it. And by the way, how come you're calling my home number?"

"I didn't want to call your business cell," Kaoru said. "That would have been weird. I've called it before about club stuff, so I know from experience."

The Shadow King chuckled. It was ingrained for him to immediately become sharper, more impersonal and ruthless when he answered the phone. It was said that the very way he said 'hello' while answering it was enough to make anyone quake in their shoes. "True," he said. Then, on impulse, he decided to make an offer. "But I do have another cellphone that I always carry with me. Perhaps it would be more convenient if you called that in the future." _And that way, Fuyumi won't pester me about the calls—and he's certain to be under my thumb a little more. I can't let him escape with information on me._

On the other line, Kaoru smiled. It was an open invitation for him to contact Kyouya in the future, although Kyouya didn't say so directly. "Okay, sempai," he said, scribbling down the number as Kyouya rattled it off. "Thanks."

"It's just that the house line has to go through my sister or the servants first," Kyouya said. "And my sister is a shameless eavesdropper."

Kaoru laughed. "Am I hearing the true Kyouya Ootori?" he teased.

"Perhaps," Kyouya said, smiling too. "But I neither deny nor confirm your suspicions."

"Oh yeah, how's your hand?"

"Much better. Remind me next time never to take my anger out on innocent walls. It costs too much."

"What, you had to fix the walls?"

"Yes, and my efficiency was impaired by thirty-two percent."

Suddenly their cellphones began ringing at the same time, on opposite ends of the line. "Hold on," they said simultaneously. Kyouya frowned as he scrolled down a text message.

"That idiot," he muttered while Kaoru grinned.

"Milord sure likes to give advance notice, doesn't he?" Kaoru asked him. "But I don't know, going to your house might be fun."

Kyouya snorted. "It would have been better if _I _had been the one to extend the invitation, not him. He is not the master of this place."

Kaoru smiled. "But we're only _meeting _at your house, sempai," he said mildly. "After that, we're all supposed to be heading to _our _house for snacks and things." He smirked. "I wonder whether Hikaru knows about this."

"Ask him," Kyouya dared.

"Too far to walk," Kaoru said. "I'm on the opposite wing of the house now." He sent a quick text message to his brother, asking him whether he had gotten Tamaki's message.

"That's a big leap for you," Kyouya noted. "I'm surprised."

"Yeah, well, I thought that if I was going to go, I might as well do it right," Kaoru explained. His brother replied. "Hikaru knew. He was the one who actually suggested it to milord."

Kyouya gritted his teeth. "I will yank out your brother's ribcage and use it as a doorstopper."

"That's not very nice," Kaoru said, but he was also mildly irritated. "That idiot didn't even tell me."

"Worse, he _encouraged _Tamaki," Kyouya said. "It's an open invitation to death. What are we supposed to be doing anyway?"

Kaoru scrolled down Hikaru's message. "Haruhi's going to be teaching us some commoner baking."

Kyouya let out a growl of frustration. "If we're all going to your house, why do we have to meet at mine?"

"I thought that would be obvious, sempai," Kaoru said. "You don't like waking up in the mornings, and they set this at seven."

"_Seven_?" Kyouya said in a dangerous tone. "Forget yanking out your brother's ribcage… by the time I'm done with him, he won't have any bones left."

* * *

"I still think that you two are making too big a deal out of this," Haruhi said. She was grumpy, having been dragged around by the two hyperactive hosts who had shown up on her doorstep at six o'clock. She tugged at the worn sleeves of her sweater. "And why does the excuse have to be commoner baking?"

"I have no idea," Hikaru said. "If you ask me, milord's plan makes minimum sense—and that's at best. But since I couldn't come up with a better plan, I had to give in."

"Because your love-filled goodies will cause them to admit the truth!" Tamaki declared as the car brought them up the Ootori driveway. "I'm sure of it, my precious daughter! Mother should not be keeping secrets from daddy!"

"My goodies are not love-filled," Haruhi said.

Hikaru stifled a laugh. "You know… I have about ten different innuendos going through my head right now."

Haruhi flushed and said nothing more, concentrating instead on Hunny and Mori's car beside Tamaki's. Why couldn't she have gone with them instead? She offered Mori a small smile and was gratified to see that he smiled back, looking at her through the window.

Kaoru had woken up to be informed by the maids that Hikaru had already left, accompanied by Tamaki. Hikaru had told them not to wake Kaoru up and to say that he had gone with milord to pick up Haruhi. Needless to say, he didn't take it in a good way.

_Yeah, sure, I'm your twin and best friend and all that crap, _he thought, rolling his eyes as he yanked a green shirt over his head. _Thanks _so_ much for bringing me along, then._

Kyouya wasn't having much of a better day. "Tamaki-sempai…" Haruhi ventured. "Are you sure this is such a good idea?" Maybe it was the smashed remains of an alarm clock from yesterday lying on the floor beside the doorway that made her wary, but something told her that it was more than that.

"Of course he's not sure," Hikaru breathed. "I am _not _going to risk my neck just to wake up the Low-Blood Pressure Evil Lord."

But Tamaki had already bounced on Kyouya's bed, throwing caution and sanity to the wind. "KYOOOOOOOUUUUUUYAAAA! WAKE UP!" he screeched, making the others take cover a short distance away. Apparently the host club's president was either suicidal or very, very stupid. The next thing they knew, Tamaki was flying over to the other side of the room. The Low-Blood Pressure Evil Lord had been awakened.

"I was up all night balancing the Berlin accounts and I have only been asleep for two hours," Kyouya said, emanating an evil purple aura. "If you want to live, I suggest you get away."

His eyes scanned the group and his brain sleepily registered that someone was missing. Immediately he glared at Hikaru. Hadn't he just told the redhead to take better care of his twin? He perceived that the older Hitachiin had probably left Kaoru behind. "Get the hell out of here. All of you."

"But—but Kyouya, we're going to do commoner baking today, remember?" Tamaki said with a timid smile.

Without even bothering to plaster his usually evil smile on his face, Kyouya told him exactly what he could do with his commoner baking.

"Mother! How could you say that in front of our precious children?" Tamaki wailed as Mori covered Hunny's ears. Haruhi winced, while Hikaru looked in awe as he mumbled, "I didn't even think that Kyouya-sempai knew that word."

Kaoru ran up the stairs, having been informed by the Ootori servants that the rest of the host club was already in Kyouya's room. It was actually pretty easy to find Kyouya's room; he just had to follow the sound of Tamaki's incessant howling. He was barely awake himself, and was still clutching at the twin cups of coffee that he had thought to buy before racing to Kyouya's house. Maybe someone in the host club would want some—or maybe he was just so used to buying two coffees that he did it out of habit.

"Uh… what did I miss?" he asked, as he saw that the host club was huddled in a corner while Kyouya was sitting up in bed, looking as threatening as ever and ready to flop back against his pillows. "Oh." One glance in Tamaki's direction confirmed what he needed to know. He walked over to Kyouya and handed him the other cup of coffee. "Here."

The purple aura vanished as Kyouya took it and put his glasses on. "Thanks," he said, taking a sip and enjoying the jolt of caffeine running through his veins. He only ever became human before noon if he consumed copious amounts of coffee. Otherwise, he staggered through the morning in a furious, zombie-like state. "It's much appreciated, Kaoru."

"No problem, sempai." Kaoru felt a bit sheepish, realizing that the rest of the host club members were looking at him as though he had just tamed a wild beast. In a way, he kind of had.

"MOTHER, HOW COME YOU TOLERATE THAT DEVILISH TWIN AND NOT ME?" Tamaki whined.

Kyouya winced. Even with the coffee, his ears weren't yet equipped to deal with Tamaki's irritating voice. "Tamaki," he said calmly. "I am giving you ten seconds to get out of the room before I call my private guards." He checked his watch. He had only counted to two before the rest of the host club had raced out the door as well. Kaoru remained in the room, laughing.

"Those fools," Kyouya muttered as continued sipping the coffee. He got up and padded over to his chest of drawers, sifting through his clothing. He pulled out a jade-colored sweater and black pants and tossed them onto the bed.

"Hey, we'll match," Kaoru said, looking down at his green shirt.

"I can think of worse people to match with." He nodded at Kaoru. "Thank you for the coffee."

"So _that's _what it takes to soften up the Low-Blood Pressure Evil Lord in the mornings," Kaoru said with a smile as Kyouya headed to the shower. Kyouya glanced back and finally surrendered himself to a rueful grin.

"Just don't let that fact get out," Kyouya said as he closed the bathroom door with a slam.

* * *

"Nice apron," Kyouya remarked.

Kaoru flushed. "Oh, shut up," he grumbled. He was the last one to grab an apron, and he was stuck wearing a frilly pink one. Kyouya wasn't even wearing one. He started to pull it off, but Kyouya stopped him.

"No, leave it. It suits you," Kyouya said, smiling. There was something amusing about the way Kaoru reacted to his careless comments. Perhaps he could use it to his advantage… Kaoru grinned back and rolled his eyes.

"Ow!" Hikaru said as he put down the tray of cookies. He sucked on his thumb, looking for all the world like a little boy. Kaoru sneaked a glance at him but said nothing, merely concentrated on mixing more batter.

Haruhi materialized at Hikaru's side. "I told you to use those mitts," she said, exasperated. "Of course you'll get burned if you don't. It's still hot." She took his hand and ran it under some cold water.

"I was distracted," Hikaru said grumpily, glancing at his brother before shooting a venomous look at Kyouya.

Kaoru sensed Kyouya's chest vibrating with suppressed laughter at his side, and he turned to look at the Shadow King. "You think Hikaru's injury is funny?" he asked.

"No," Kyouya said, a secretive smile blooming on his face. "But I can't help laughing at the irony of it all." He shook his head, still smirking, as he tasted the batter. He made a face. "They'll love this. It's really sweet."

"Oh yeah, you don't like sweet things," Kaoru remembered. "So what are you making, then?"

"Well, Tamaki _did _insist that I try my hand at something, and it never pays to ignore him," Kyouya sighed. "But I refused to do any baking, so now he's sulking in the corner." A quick glance in Tamaki's direction confirmed that the host club king was indeed at the far end of the room, drawing circles on the ground while emitting a depressed aura. "But I made some popsicles."

"KYOOOOOOOOUUUUUYAAAAAA!" Tamaki wailed. "Popsicles are not part of the beautiful bonding of commoner baking! You just FREEEEEZZZZZZEEEEE those things in the freezer! What about the _warmth_ of commoner baking?"

Kyouya sighed. "Fine," he grumbled. There were times that he wondered why he even listened to Tamaki. Oh yes. Firstly, he was the Suoh heir. Secondly, he was still sort of in love with him. The Shadow King was annoyed. He couldn't wait until he got over his adolescent crush.

"What are you going to make, then?" Kaoru asked.

"I suppose that a cake would be easy," Kyouya said. "And I've made coffee cake before—so at least I know what to do," he added in an undertone. "But don't let the others catch on; otherwise they'll want me to help them, like Haruhi."

Kaoru smirked. "True," he said as he popped his own cookie mix into the oven.

"Hey, milord," Hikaru whispered. "Have you forgotten about the _objective _of this mission?"

Hunny frowned at them. "I think that we should leave Kyou-chan and Kao-chan alone," he said.

Mori nodded in agreement. "They're doing okay," he said. It was rare that he even spoke, but now his eyes were trained on the two hosts and he had obviously been observing them for some time. "Let them work it out."

"No way! I'm not letting my brother be the Shadow King's victim," Hikaru said.

"And there's no way that mother would actually be in love with that devilish twin! He isn't good enough for Kyouya!" Tamaki added.

Hikaru glared at him. "What did you say?"

Haruhi held up her hands to make peace. "If you guys fight, they'll overhear you." That shut the other two up.

Twenty minutes later, Kyouya was already done with his coffee cake. "That was quick," Kaoru said, eyeing the chocolate-coffee icing.

"Yes, well, it was an absurdly simple recipe," Kyouya said. He cut into it for a taste test. "Want some?" he asked, holding out a forkful.

"What, I'm your guinea pig?" Kaoru asked jokingly. "Better put the paramedics on standby." Kyouya smirked and put the cake into his mouth to shut him up.

"See! Things like that!" Hikaru hissed. Haruhi shushed him and told him to concentrate on his own cookies.

"Amazing, sempai!" Kaoru said, chewing. "Ever considered giving up the business to run your own patisserie?"

"Not on your life; it isn't fun enough," Kyouya said, taking a bite of it himself. Hmm. It was pretty good, although it had been a while since he'd last baked. "I find nothing more exhilarating than being in head-to-head competition in business. It takes a lot of skill and slyness… it keeps me on my toes."

Kaoru chuckled. "That sounds just like you, sempai." He offered Kyouya some of his cookies. "Would you like to taste my cookies?"

"Kaoru… did anyone ever tell you how very wrong that sounded?"

The redhead blushed. "Just try them?"

Kyouya took one and bit into it thoughtfully. "Somehow the taste reminds me of you," he commented and dabbed at his mouth with the napkin.

The redhead blushed. "That sounded like an innuendo, sempai. You've got a really perverted mind underneath the whole I'm-so-proper-act, don't you?"

Kyouya smirked. "Believe what you want."

"If anyone wants some, they can help themselves," he said, putting the cake out on the counter. Hunny attacked immediately, much to Kyouya's amusement. Perhaps his baking skills could serve some use in strengthening his connections after all. He smiled as the others heaped praise on him, except for Hikaru, who refused to try it.

Come to think of it, Tamaki didn't try Kaoru's cookies either.

"Hey… what were you saying was so ironic earlier?" Kaoru asked Kyouya.

"It's simple. When we're together, Hikaru and Tamaki both get mad." Kyouya shrugged as he helped himself to another one of Kaoru's cookies, even though he had told Kaoru earlier that he thought they were too sweet. "It's odd—unfair, even. When we're around for just them, they ignore us. When we leave them for other things, they cling onto us. It's a paradox. And it's selfish."

"Ah," Kaoru said. Then he paused, watching Kyouya nibble at the cookie. "I thought you didn't like sweet things, sempai."

Kyouya smirked. "If I didn't, why would I still be around you?"

* * *

Hikaru was furious. He hadn't heard all of their conversation—okay, he'd basically heard nothing that Kyouya said—but he at least heard the Shadow King's last comment. And he was furious at the way that Kaoru was blushing like some innocent schoolgirl when his brother had laughed off some of the worst innuendos that he had come up with without even blinking. Why couldn't Kaoru just wake up and see that Kyouya was manipulating him?

"Kaoru, want some?" Hikaru asked, slamming his tray of cookies between his twin and the Shadow King, startling the younger redhead badly. Kyouya didn't seem the least bit surprised.

"Uh… okay?" Kaoru ventured, taking one of the cookies. They were slightly burnt, but he took a bite anyway. For Hikaru, he would probably scarf down a bucket of dead bugs and say, "Delicious" with a completely straight face.

His eyes bugged out when the morsel hit his tongue. Compared to this, he would take a bucket of dead bugs any day. "It's… unique." He chewed it manfully, swallowing the small mouthful that he consumed. He put the rest of the cookie down on the counter. "No one could ever accuse you of being unoriginal, Hikaru."

Hunny tried it and was more candid.

He spat it out and ran for a glass of chocolate milk.

"Is it that bad?" Hikaru asked, heart sinking.

Haruhi took the smallest nibble possible. She looked Hikaru straight in the eyes. "I hate to say it, but yeah, it's that bad. Don't worry; you'll do better next time. I nearly burnt down the house the first time I tried cooking. I think you mixed up some of the ingredients or something."

Hikaru looked sheepish. "I kind of just tossed in whatever I felt like after a while."

"Yes, that would explain it," Haruhi said seriously. Kaoru was struggling not to give in to the urge to gag repeatedly until the horrible taste got out of his mouth. A popsicle appeared in front of his face. "Here," said Kyouya. "Want one?"

"Thanks," Kaoru said gratefully. He saw that Kyouya had his own and was offering some to the others, all of whom declined. Haruhi, Mori and Hunny just didn't want any. Hikaru was still pissed off at the Shadow King. And Tamaki refused to eat 'the cold product of an insensitive freezer, when there are so many warm, love-filled goodies like your beautiful cake for a king to consume!'

He watched Kyouya lick the popsicle. There was something decidedly sexy about it, he though, tearing his eyes away from the pink tongue running down the frozen surface. It was almost a private thing. He saw Hikaru glowering at him when he dropped his gaze, flushed, and he realized that his brother was angry again. What was wrong with him, anyway? That was Kyouya-sempai, not Hikaru, which he was looking at. He never thought that hearts could skip beats—it sounded so corny and clichéd, like something that only happened in movies and stories—but they did, apparently.

"Hey, Hikaru, do you want a taste?" Kaoru asked, licking at the popsicle too. It _was _good, as was everything edible that Kyouya made, even though, as Tamaki said, it was just frozen stuff. Apparently the host king didn't appreciate how difficult it was to come up with these sorts of flavors—vanilla and chocolate and something slightly spicy, with just a hint of lemon. It was a weird combination, but it worked. And at least it got the taste of Hikaru's cookies out of his mouth.

"No, I don't want any," Hikaru grumbled, storming away.

"He's so sensitive," Haruhi sighed, starting to go after him, but Mori stopped her with a shake of his head. It was better to let the Hitachiin sulk in peace until he got over it.

Kyouya shrugged at Kaoru. "Just let him go," he said softly, knowing that the younger boy was about to bolt after his brother. Kaoru seemed to wilt, stopping in his tracks. "He has to learn how to deal."

"Of course," Kaoru said, but his eyes were still sad.

Kyouya leaned forward. "Don't let it get to you, Kaoru." He shrugged. "If you can do it, he can do it too."

Kaoru bristled. "But he's sensitive—"

The Shadow King nodded. "That's why it's best to start early."

"What about the way you look at—"

"Do _not _mention that here," Kyouya said in a low voice. Apparently Kyouya was a bit sensitive too. "I don't want to risk anyone overhearing us." He sucked on the popsicle, seeming to think something over—not exactly seeing that Kaoru was watching his movements with a light blush tingeing his cheeks. "It's only a matter of time until _that person _is out of my mind."

"Man, that's cold," Kaoru said.

"No," Kyouya said. "That's life."

* * *

A/N: So there. Both the phone call and commoner baking. Man, I kinda feel sorry for Hikaru... I am so evil. What did you guys think? I'd love to get your feedback. Anyway, I'll try to update soon. As always, more reviews equals faster updates! 


	5. Stirrings and Beginnings

A/N: Greetings, all, and my apologies for this extremely late chapter. I tried uploading it yesterday and the day before, but the gods seemed to conspire against me and wouldn't take it for unknown reasons. Seriously. Anyway, thank you to all those who reviewed! You all deserve a big bunch of roses and some of Kyouya's ice cream. (",) This chapter is for my dear crazy friend starlight2005 and to all the people out there who reviewed me, especially those who've been reviewing since the first chapter.

Without further ado, I present to you all Chapter Four.

* * *

Chapter Four: Stirrings and Beginnings

Tamaki rode home in Kyouya's car. The two of them had agreed last week to study together during the weekend, and it was already Sunday, after all. Kyouya was now oddly reluctant to do so, but he gave in. As an Ootori, he wasn't one to go back on his word (unless there was a considerable amount of money involved).

"So… mother… you've been spending a lot of time with that devilish twin lately," he ventured. When alone with Kyouya, he was just a bit more serious—a little wiser, a little more insightful. There were times when he was still the lovable, inconsiderate host king, but more often than not he dropped the charm and just became plain old Suoh Tamaki.

If you could call being Suoh Tamaki plain…

Kyouya nodded. "His name is Kaoru, Tamaki. Not 'that devilish twin'."

"I call them as I see them," Tamaki said flatly.

The Shadow King shrugged, staring out the window instead of looking at his friend when he spoke. "I would do the same, but I hardly think that you would appreciate being called 'empty-headed pretty boy."

Tamaki flushed. "See, that's what I'm talking about!" he said, wagging a finger at his best friend's face. "You've become a lot meaner to me!"

"If you consider honesty to be cruelty then I have nothing to say to you," Kyouya said.

"Why don't you look at me?" Tamaki asked, frustrated.

Kyouya closed his eyes. _Because if I do, I might not have the resolve to forget you. _He opened them and frowned, trying to look through Tamaki instead of at him, as though he were transparent. "There."

"You don't see me," Tamaki murmured. The Shadow King didn't deny it. "Why is it that when it comes to Kaoru, you change?"

_My God, is he joking? Are my interactions with Hitachiin Kaoru all he can see_? "Do you think that I don't treat you differently, Tamaki?" he asked softly. "If I treated you like any other rich student, you would not be here right now."

"Am I different too, then?" Tamaki asked.

"Yes. Very," Kyouya said, loath though he was to admit it. There. He had said it—and there was no way he could take it back. "Tamaki… I have a headache. Could we study together some other time?"

"Are you sick?" the host king asked, putting a cool hand on Kyouya's brow. "You do seem a bit feverish…"

_It's called love, you dolt. And get your hand away from me before I say it out loud. _"It's nothing that you need to concern yourself with," he said. "I'll just take some aspirin and sleep early."

Tamaki looked at him intently. He had known Kyouya to be secretly on the point of retching out his insides (and yet hiding it with admirable skill) and still push through with their tutorial sessions, never saying a word even when Tamaki very inconsiderately asked to just sleep over since it was already too late to go home. In fact, he only tended to find out when Kyouya raced to the bathroom and heaved into the toilet until the Shadow King's insides hurt from the effort.

"Kyouya, you can tell me anything. You know that, right?"

"Not everything," Kyouya said, dropping his gaze. If he had cared enough, he would have summoned up his ability to lie smoothly and lie well; but he knew that Tamaki had already seen through his pretense, and there was no point in pushing the point further. Better to admit it, to quit while he was ahead. "But as I've said, it's nothing that you need to concern yourself with."

"Are you… in love?" Tamaki asked, hesitating. He had no idea why that was the first thing that came to mind, but he recognized in Kyouya all the symptoms he felt when he was around Haruhi.

Kyouya felt a horrible heat rise up his cheeks. "No," he said harshly, turning away to avoid Tamaki's penetrating eyes before the blonde could see the redness of his face. "I already said that I just don't feel well."

But Tamaki saw anyway.

"O… okay," Tamaki stammered as Kyouya instructed the driver to drive to the Suoh mansion to drop Tamaki off since Tamaki wouldn't be studying at the Ootori household tonight.

Tamaki didn't mind. He barely even knew whether Kyouya spoke at all on the short ride to the Suoh mansion—and Kyouya didn't. Perhaps it was better, since Tamaki would hardly have been able to hold up his end of the conversation.

His mind was too full processing the thought that Kyouya, the host club's Shadow King, was in love.

* * *

The reactions:

"You have got to be kidding me. I know, I'm probably dreaming… I knew I shouldn't have had that pizza before bedtime." –Hikaru

"Kyou-chan's in love? Really? Wow! Who's it, who's it, who's it?" -Hunny

"I wondered whether that was the possibility… but I thought he would raise my debt if he found out that I mentioned it to you all. And it's kind of hard to believe." –Haruhi

"Hmm." –Mori

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO! You're all supposed to tell me that I'm WRONG!"

Haruhi shrugged, exasperated. "Well, Kyouya-sempai's been acting peculiarly for a while now. He treats some of us differently. I noticed that before."

Hikaru's eyes narrowed. "If it's Kaoru, then I—"

Tamaki's head whipped up, eyes lighting with an almost maniacal light as he slammed his hands on the table. "That's it! That devilish twin must have hypnotized dear mother and set him up in his love trap!"

Haruhi winced. _Love trap? _The Host King was just over the top sometimes.

"Listen, milord, if Kaoru was planning anything wicked, he would tell me—and this is one prank where he doesn't have my support," Hikaru said flatly. "So I hate to break it to you, but he's not setting Kyouya-sempai up for anything."

"By the way, where _is _Kaoru?" Haruhi asked. "I thought he was right behind us just a moment ago."

Hikaru frowned. "Hey… yeah. Now that you mention it, where'd he run off to?"

"You mean you didn't even notice until now?" Haruhi asked, slightly appalled. "I thought that you'd say he just went off to the bathroom or something."

The older Hitachiin shifted, slightly uncomfortable. "Yeah, well… anyway… has anyone seen him?"

Haruhi and Tamaki both shook their heads. Mori grunted.

"Mori-sempai?" Hikaru asked.

"With Kyouya," the senior said succinctly. He smiled a little.

Hunny nodded in agreement. "Yeah, he went by our classroom awhile ago, and Kyou-chan met him at the door," he piped up, clapping his hands. "They were headed over here too, but Kyou-chan got held up by his classmates."

"I wondered why he told me to go ahead," Tamaki sniffled. "He said that he still had to organize something with the class president."

"Yeah, but Kao-chan is waiting for him there," said Hunny. "So Kyou-chan's still going to have company on the way here."

Actually, Kaoru came in—without Kyouya in tow. "Hello," he said hoarsely, dropping his bag on the table, trying to catch his breath as he sat down with an unceremonious flop. It was like he had just run a marathon: his face was bright red, and his lungs were straining for air. He caught their surprised looks. "What're you all looking at? Is there something on my face?"

"Ah… we thought that Kyouya-sempai would be with you," Haruhi said.

"He was," Kaoru said simply. "But we kind of… got held up by the fan girls. We decided that it would probably be best to run here in separate directions since we'd be slower if we tried getting here together." He shuddered, curling up on the couch. "Death by glomping isn't exactly the way I wanted to pass on to the next life."

The rest of the host club nodded. They knew exactly how horrible running away from fan girls could be.

"I feel sorry for sempai… he didn't look like he was feeling too well, but he still had to race away from them," Kaoru added. "He said that he just had a headache." His tone made it clear that he didn't believe it for a bit.

"Devilish twin, have _you _noticed it too?" Tamaki asked.

"I am not 'devilish twin'," Kaoru said, rolling his eyes. He picked up a cup and poured himself some jasmine tea. He inhaled the scent with a sigh of contentment. "That's Hikaru. I'm the good twin, remember? And noticed what?"

"That… that mother is in love!"

Kaoru blinked, dropping the teacup that he held in his hand. The smell of spilled jasmine filled the air. "Damn!" Kaoru said, getting down on his hands and knees to mop it up with some paper napkins. He blew out an exasperated breath, making his red bangs flutter on his forehead.

"So, have you?" Hikaru asked.

Kaoru didn't answer him. Good grief—he had almost burned himself and all his twin brother was concerned about was whether or not he had noticed whether Kyouya-sempai was in love? He seethed inside, not realizing that his brother was closely inspecting his features, trying to gauge his reaction.

"Honestly… I'm gone for about ten seconds and you're already hopeless without me." The others turned to see Kyouya standing in the doorway. The Shadow King slammed the door shut and locked it, then went over to help Kaoru clean up the mess. They heard banging on the other side of the door.

"DON'T open it," Kyouya barked when Tamaki moved towards the door. The host king shrank away. Kyouya sighed. "We're not going to open that door until official club time begins, do you understand?"

"Uh… sempai?" Haruhi said, frowning. Usually Kyouya kept an open-door policy, which he insisted boosted their sales.

"Just… just let it go, Haruhi," he said, letting his hands get wet with spilled tea.

"But the profits…" Tamaki said uncertainly.

Kyouya raised his dark head at the host king. "Listen, there are some merits that aren't necessarily in the form of cash or connections," he said, echoing Kaoru's words. And then he said the words that brought about the end of the world: "I don't care about the profit. This is more important. " _What is? What am I talking about? My life—that's what's more important. That _is _what I'm talking about, isn't it?_

They stared at him in shock, but he paid no attention to them.

* * *

The host club soon found out why Kyouya had been so insistent on keeping the door barred. As soon as club time began and he had to unlock it, the Shadow King and Kaoru were swamped with girls.

"Ack! Sempai—I can't breathe!" Kaoru choked out from under a mass of squealing fan girls.

Kyouya managed to pull at his arm, extracting him from the swarming shippers and pulling the redhead towards him. "Ladies, please," he said. "Kaoru is still delicate, after all." He noted that the bruises were fading pretty quickly, but he said nothing about that. And anyway, his hand was still under a mass of bandages.

"They're… more rabid than usual," Haruhi said, looking shocked. She and the rest of the club were left without customers to entertain; even Tamaki, their biggest draw, was by himself. "I never thought that it would be possible for them to become more intense than they already were."

"I don't get it!" Hikaru said. "What on earth is so attractive about their pairing? The symmetry is all wrong! I thought that it took a pair of twins to take the taboo to the highest degree!"

Renge laughed, emerging out of nowhere in what they had dubbed the Renge-Ex-Machina way, spiraling out of the floor on her platform. "Don't you get it, foolish Hitachiin? The _tsundere _effect!"

Tamaki twitched. "Tsundere?"

"It's an otaku word," Haruhi guessed.

Renge's eyes sparkled. "How right you are, my darling Haruhi-kun!" She clasped her hands together, as though she were praying. "Tsundere, meaning a character who is tough and cold, gradually becoming a warm and loving person!" She let out a squeal of delight. "And Kyouya-sama fits the description perfectly! See the bandage on his hand? Kyouya-sama protected Kaoru-kun one night when they were out together, when an unknown assailant tried to attack Kaoru-kun, despite the fact the he continues to deny his growing feelings for Kaoru-kun!"

"Eh? Really?" Hunny asked, his eyes widening.

"Of course!" Renge said.

"Did anyone _see_ that happen?" Hikaru asked, rolling his eyes. As far as he knew, Kaoru and Kyouya had never been out together alone before.

"No, but that doesn't mean that it didn't happen!" Renge chirped. "And on the other hand, the other fan girls are intoxicated by the relationship where the innocent Kaoru is seduced by the dark prince in the form of Kyouya-sama." She laughed her horrible o-ho-ho-ho laugh. "It's a wicked and wonderful whirlwind of a relationship!"

"Must… scrub… out… brain…" muttered Hikaru, clutching at his temples.

Renge beamed. "There's a little bit of everything in Kyouya-sama's relationship with Kaoru-kun! Whether you revel in the purity of a blossoming love or delight in the wild and sexy fling between a naïve young man and his older, more experienced sempai, you can see it in Kyouya-sama and Kaoru-kun!"

"What happened to the whole 'symmetry is key' ideal?" Hikaru demanded. "After all, having twins flirt with you is the ultimate forbidden romance, isn't it?"

"No, stupid Hitachiin!" Renge put her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes at him. "If you cared to pay attention, you would see that while you and Kaoru-kun are exactly alike, Kyouya-sama is his exact opposite. From the magnificent clash of his neat black hair to Kaoru-kun's untamed, fiery locks, to a flamboyant nature versus Kyouya-sama's quiet, cool nature, and of course the concept of Kaoru-kun's inexperience versus Kyouya-sama's expertise in relationships, and Kyouya-sama stealing him away from a taboo relationship and saving him from the loneliness of his brother falling in love with their best friend. That in itself is hotter than perfect symmetry." She smirked. "Everyone's rooting for their pairing. After all, I _was _there during your little baking get-together this Saturday, and of course the video sold amazingly well."

Haruhi blinked. "When… were… you… there?"

"You mean you sneaked onto the Hitachiin estate and none of our guards even saw you?" Hikaru demanded. Okay… their security was _so _fired.

"I told them that I was with your group," Renge said breezily. "I found out when I called Kyouya-sama's house that morning and Fuyumi-san told me that you were all at the Hitachiin's house… so I headed over immediately and told the maids that I was taping a candid video for you guys!"

Hikaru clenched his fists. Maids… so totally fired.

"Can I see it?" Haruhi asked.

They all stared at her.

"What?" she asked defensively. "I'm just curious. Don't worry, I'm not going to become a fan girl anytime soon." Although, now that she thought about it, the Kyouya-Kaoru pairing _was _rather intriguing…

Mori couldn't help smiling at her. "Hmm. You just watch out," he said quietly. "I wouldn't want you becoming one."

She chuckled, quashing the thought. "Of course not."

Renge pressed a button and suddenly a giant television came spiraling out of the ground.

"Renge… if you paid for that with club funds…" Kyouya said threateningly. Then again, it was difficult to be threatening when you were just struggling not to be buried under a mass of Kyaa-crazy fan girls.

"Of course not, Kyouya-sama!" Renge said happily. She pressed another button.

"_I thought you didn't like sweet things, sempai," _said Kaoru, his face magnified up to fifty times on the huge screen.

Oh no, she did NOT. Kaoru began to retreat and found himself backing into Kyouya. With a low whimper of fear, he took hold of the older boy's arm. "They're going to kill us," he whispered.

On-screen Kyouya smiled, his eyes darkening with mischief. _"If I didn't, why would I still be around you?"_

Kyouya groaned. He had not foreseen this. He moved in front of Kaoru, shielding the Hitachiin from the insane 'ladies' (more like cavewomen, if you asked him). Later, he vowed, he would kill Renge. That is, if he managed to survive the fan girl attack.

* * *

An hour later, and the host club found themselves congregated around Kaoru and Kyouya in the host club's medical room.

Renge was beside herself, wringing her hands in anxiety. "Kyouya-sama, I am _so, so _very sorry. I never expected that those horrible fan girls would rip you two to shreds just to see your beautiful interaction with Kaoru-kun! I am overcome with unbearable grief."

Kyouya wanted to glare at her, but after all she was the daughter of one of the Ootori family's associates—as an Ootori, he was obliged to be gracious even when he didn't want to be. Even when he wanted to rip her to itsy-bitsy little shreds. "I understand," he said, nodding at her. He went to check on Kaoru first.

"Ah… sempai, you're injured too," Kaoru said. "You go ahead, mine's nothing serious."

Kyouya rolled his eyes. "Don't be stupid, Kaoru. I can wait. I have to make sure that you're okay first." He sighed. "Take off your shirt."

Even in her 'unbearable grief', Renge was still taping everything. Haruhi let out a choking noise to indicate her disbelief, but Renge ignored her.

The Shadow King's fingers moved lightly over Kaoru's pale skin, noting that the old bruises had gotten darker again, and that new bruises had appeared, including on the arms and chest. "You bruise rather easily," he remarked.

Kaoru smirked. "Yeah, because no one else would get bruises after being crushed by a human tsunami, right?"

"Point well taken," Kyouya said, rubbing some cooling salve on them. Renge watched greedily as Kyouya's hands lingered on a particularly nasty mark on Kaoru's chest. The fan girls would have a field day!

Hikaru cleared his throat in a meaningful manner. "I think he's okay now, sempai," he said, eyes narrowing. Kyouya was _not _allowed to touch his brother any more than was strictly necessary.

The Shadow King inspected Kaoru one last time. "All right," he said, but he was obviously still unsatisfied.

"No, sempai, I'm really okay," Kaoru insisted. "You should check up on yourself, not just on me."

Kyouya shrugged and began peeling off his old bandage. His wound seemed to have reopened during the scuffle, and the dressing had gotten stained with blood. So much blood… he gritted his teeth and started to apply some disinfectant on it. He had been accustomed to the sight of blood since birth.

"That looks pretty bad," Haruhi observed. "How did you injure your hand in the first place?"

Kyouya opened his mouth, and then closed it. "It was a personal affair," he said stiffly.

Renge lit up like a Christmas tree. "Were you really defending Kaoru-kun from an unknown assailant one dark evening?"

Kaoru and Kyouya exchanged looks. "Yes," they said simultaneously. Better that than letting Renge know the truth—Kaoru was too nice to let Kyouya have to confess what had happened rather than take part of the consequences for himself. And if they denied it, the otaku would definitely not rest until she uncovered the facts. It was best for them to just give her what she wanted.

"Wow, Kyou-chan is so kind!" Hunny said.

Honestly, it was amazing what kind of rubbish Renge could come up with. She was almost as bad as Tamaki. "It wasn't anything special," Kyouya said, feeling guilty that his senior was heaping him with praise for something that he didn't do.

"He doesn't really like talking about it," Kaoru added quickly. "He's so modest."

Tamaki was almost trembling with shock—and was that jealousy? "Just when exactly did this happen?"

Kyouya looked him squarely in the eye and lied for all he was worth. "The day that Kaoru and I skipped club activities."

_How come you only want to know what's going on in my life when I'm trying to give you up?_

"Where did you go at that time, anyway?" Hikaru said, rounding on his twin. "You two never said anything."

Kaoru shrugged. "We don't plan on telling you any time soon," he said carelessly, leaving out the fact that they had only shared some tea at Kyouya's house while talking over their unrequited love for the two people who happened to be interrogating them at the moment.

_I would have killed for you to pay attention to me any other time. This isn't fair…_

"But… but…"

Two heads, one dark and one red, shared one thought. _I would hate you if I didn't love you._ Kaoru and Kyouya both knew what was on the other's mind.

"Sorry," they said at the same time. They shared a sad, secret smile as they turned away from the two people they loved the most.

* * *

It had taken forever to appease the rest of the Host Club members—although, in a way, they had hardly been satisfied with the answers that Kyouya and Kaoru had given them. That is, when they _had _answers; more often the pair was cryptic, or refused to answer them at all. But when it became apparent that the two weren't about to talk anytime soon, they had finally given up and suggested that they get going home. They locked up the club room and all started out.

Hikaru looked irritably over at his brother. They hadn't been speaking properly since the incident at their house, when he had seen Kaoru blushing like some idiot over Kyouya's flattery.

"Hey, Hikaru," Kaoru ventured tentatively. It cost him a lot of effort to even try to initiate a conversation, considering the clear annoyance written all over his brother's face. But still, he tried. "Mother gave me two tickets to this art gallery opening tonight—"

"I don't want to go," Hikaru cut him off. "It's boring. What would I want to do there? I have lots of better things to do." He saw the crushed look on Kaoru's face. _Good. Let him feel bad, see if I care. _He felt a small, nasty stab of guilt, but he immediately quashed it. His twin had started the whole messy business, after all, going after Kyouya like that when he had supposedly felt so bad about the way the Shadow King had invaded their world. Kaoru was a hypocrite, and he deserved to feel like crud.

"Are you mad at me or something?" He honestly knew better than to ask, because he knew that Hikaru would dismiss his question. And he already _knew _that Hikaru was angry at him. They weren't twins for nothing, after all. He could read it in his brother's eyes, and the way that Hikaru's mouth tightened when he spoke to him. He felt annoyed with himself—and with Hikaru.

"Of course not," Hikaru answered, predictable as ever. "What are you, stupid?" The words were like a blow, and Kaoru winced as though his twin had just struck him. Hikaru looked away. "I don't have to be mad at you just to refuse, you know. Maybe I just don't really want to go."

"Okay," he said, not meeting Hikaru's eyes. "I understand. Sorry. I know I'm an idiot." He flashed his twin a small, forced smile before scurrying away ahead of them, even though they were all going the same direction. His rapid steps were like an accusation to Hikaru, but he uncomfortably insisted to himself that it wasn't his fault.

Haruhi watched Kaoru's fleeing back and couldn't help feeling sorry for the Hitachiin. She broke off her conversation with Mori to round on Hikaru. He nodded at her when she tilted her head towards Hikaru, indicating that he wanted to talk to her. Mori always understood what she was thinking—she never had to tell him all that much because he saw and listened even when she didn't speak.

"What was that all about?" she demanded. "You didn't have to act like that."

"Act like what?" he shot back.

"Like you hate him," Mori said quietly.

"That wasn't very nice, Hika-chan," Hunny agreed.

"You shouldn't listen in other people's conversations, anyway," Hikaru said, looking uncomfortable. "And anyway, I don't hate him. He was just overreacting as usual. I already told him that I'm not mad at him."

"No, but you do a wonderful imitation of it," Kyouya commented, breaking the silence that he had been keeping since their interrogation earlier. Tamaki raised his eyebrows at him.

"He's my brother, not yours, Kyouya-sempai," Hikaru said coldly.

"And yet you don't seem to care all that much about him." Kyouya shoved his hands into his pockets. His eyes were icy when he looked at the older Hitachiin. "Perhaps if you knew exactly how much you had—and still have—you wouldn't be so quick to try to lose it."

"That's not for you to say, sempai," he pointed out.

"No, it's not, but I'm saying it anyway," Kyouya said with a smile that didn't extend to his eyes. Hikaru was right; it wasn't his place to speak out. But in the past few days, he had gotten fond of the younger Hitachiin, and he despised the way Hikaru treated him. Perhaps because he knew what it was like to love someone so completely stupid that he treated you like dirt.

"What are you trying to say?"

Kyouya shrugged, by now determined on avoiding a fight with Hikaru. There were no merits to be gained from that, in any case. It would only upset Kaoru more, besides damaging his relationship with the Hitachiin family. And _that _was something he would not allow. "Nothing, of course," he said. He was eyeing Kaoru thoughtfully.

"Why didn't you just stay away from Kaoru?" Hikaru finally said. "Everything was so much better before _you _stepped in."

Kyouya looked at him incredulously. _He _had stepped in? It had been _Kaoru _who had first revealed himself, who had admitted everything after overhearing his little tirade. But such details were not important. "I didn't 'step in', Hikaru. Kaoru and I simply became friends. Perhaps because we understand each other on certain points."

"I don't want you to understand him!" Hikaru said, cheeks going red.

The Shadow King smiled. "And that's not for you to say either, is it? But of course you're saying it anyway. Don't you think that that's rather hard on Kaoru?" _You don't pay attention to him, and yet you want him to lavish all his attention on you. _"He's mature enough to make his own decisions."

"Not where _you're _involved," Hikaru said snottily. Honestly, he was just acting like a brat now.

Haruhi sighed and decided to intervene before things got out of hand. Kyouya had remarkable self-control, and she knew that he would never start swinging at Hikaru; but on the other hand, she didn't trust him not to continue one-upping Hikaru's comments, and Hikaru _could _get violent when he reached his breaking point. If he laid a finger on Kyouya, he was bound to regret it later—or anyway, the Shadow King would make sure that he did. "That's enough, Hikaru. You already turned down Kaoru's invitation, remember? The point is moot."

"Fine," he said sullenly, glaring at Kyouya. The Shadow King ignored him.

_At least, _Hikaru thought grimly, _he asked me, and not Kyouya-sempai. _He smiled nastily at the thought.

* * *

"Aren't you and Hikaru going to the opening, darling?" inquired their mother. Kaoru was shifting restlessly on the couch, flipping through the channels on their gigantic television set. He had gotten dressed for the opening, but at the last moment decided that he would feel stupid going by himself.

"Nah, Hikaru didn't want to go," he said, stilling smarting from his twin's words earlier. Hikaru didn't have to talk to him that way, no matter how he was feeling. He hadn't done anything wrong, anyway. He had asked Hikaru earlier whether he had changed his mind, but his brother had stubbornly said no and went back to an internet game he was playing.

So that was how Hikaru valued him. He was less important than some stupid online game.

"What a shame," his mother sighed. She had sensed the recent discord between her two sons, and much as she had wanted to see them grow a little away from each other, she couldn't help regretting her rash wish. She hadn't known what the consequences would be. Kaoru seemed miserable without Hikaru, and Hikaru just seemed angry at everything these days. "I can't go out tonight with you either—I have a design to finish. Sorry, darling. I would have wanted to go with you." She kissed him on the cheek. "Don't stay up too late."

"I won't," he promised, and resumed channel-surfing. He tugged at the collar of his shirt. Maybe he should just get changed into his pajamas already and just sleep off the whole thing. Maybe in the morning, it would all seem a little better.

His cellphone rang. "Moshimoshi?"

"Hey," the Shadow King greeted him. "You don't sound so happy."

"Oh, hey, Kyouya-sempai. You overheard it all earlier, I suppose," he said softly.

"Yes. Your brother is a fool, and we almost had a fight about it. Ah well. Didn't you go to the gallery opening?"

"Negative. I didn't want to go by myself." He sighed. "I felt stupid. It's a bother."

"I thought as much."

"Am I that predictable?" he asked, laughing self-consciously.

"Perhaps."

"And Hikaru made it sound so… idiotic."

Kyouya made soft noise of disapproval at the comment. "Come out, Kaoru."

He blinked. "Come out?"

"Just do it. Trust me," Kyouya told him. "I didn't set mines outside your house, don't worry."

He ignored the puzzled stares of the maids as he walked out. "Kyouya-sempai!" he said, surprised to see the Shadow King standing there, smiling at him. He made a lovely picture under the stars, his eyes bright behind his glasses. "What the heck are you doing here?" He looked at him. He was all dressed up too, in a neat black jacket and pants ensemble. Then again, Kyouya always looked pulled together.

"It's a shame to waste those tickets of yours. I thought that maybe you would want some company, since Hikaru didn't want to come with you." Kyouya shrugged. "If you don't want to, it's okay with me. I just thought that you might want to go."

Kaoru's heart warmed. "Thank you, Kyouya-sempai." He smiled with genuine happiness, and Kyouya secretly felt glad that he had decided to come. "I'll just get my jacket, okay? Could you wait a sec?"

"With pleasure," Kyouya said, inclining his head at him.

Kaoru bounded back in and found himself face to face with his twin, who definitely did not look pleased. "Hikaru," he said as evenly as possible. "What're you doing here? I thought you were playing a game."

"It got boring," Hikaru said dismissively. "What's Kyouya-sempai doing here?"

"We're going." Kaoru picked up his jacket. "To the art gallery opening."

Hikaru turned red. "What's that all about, anyway?" he said, evidently pissed off.

Kaoru shrugged. "You didn't want to go." He glanced back at Hikaru as he turned to leave. "You've got nothing to be mad about."

"Kaoru—"

"I already told you," he said matter-of-factly. "You can't have it both ways, Hikaru." He flashed his twin a brief smile. "See you."

Kyouya tilted his head and raised an eyebrow quizzically. "Got held up?"

Kaoru shrugged. "You could say that."

The Shadow King nodded. He understood, even if Kaoru didn't explain. "So, where's this gallery anyway?"

The Hitachiin matriarch wasn't the best of mothers, in the eyes of many. And well, with kids like that, she could understand why. But it was also mostly because she rarely had time to spend with them. But to her credit, she tried. The way she was trying right now, rushing through her design and finishing it with admirable speed.

"Where's Kaoru?" she asked the maids, descending the stairs.

"He went to the gallery opening, Hitachiin-sama," she said respectfully.

She raised her eyebrows. "Hikaru too?"

"Hikaru-sama is in his room and doesn't wish to be disturbed," the maid said.

Her brows furrowed. She didn't like the idea of Kaoru going off on his own. Her younger son was wont to be lonely. "I see. Ready the car for me, if you please."

"That's a butt-ugly painting," Kaoru said softly to Kyouya, who stifled a laugh. "Why do people pay so much for this garbage but disdain the good stuff?"

"People rarely notice the truly precious things," Kyouya replied. "And you ought to take more care that people won't hear you. I see a number of Hitachiin and Ootori associates here. They may be supporting the artist."

Kaoru made a face at him. "Spoilsport," he said, but nodded.

"Kaoru-kun! How _wonderful _to see you here!" It was one of his mother's many business partners, and he cringed at the lady rushing towards him at full tilt, air-kissing his cheeks. "You _are _Kaoru-kun, aren't you? Or is it Hikaru-kun?"

"Uh, no. I'm Kaoru."

"How is your mother?"

"Just fine, Nanahara-san," he muttered, fidgeting slightly.

"And where's Hikaru-kun?"

He looked up at Kyouya. "Ah, Hikaru couldn't make it. This is my sempai from Ouran, Ootori Kyouya."

Nanahara-san blinked, her eyes widening slightly. Kaoru was never seen in public without his brother. _Ever. _They even went to the bathroom together. "Oh, so pleased to make your acquaintance," she said, smiling at him. "I know the Ootori Corp. very well." She had certain misgivings, because she knew what kind of company Kaoru liked to keep: the daredevil, rude kind. He and his brother were the terror of social gatherings.

Kyouya offered her his most charismatic smile and a bow with his hand pressed to his heart. "I'm charmed to meet you, Nanahara-sama. The Ootori family holds you in high esteem. I've heard so many wonderful things about you, and I can see that they're all true."

She flushed, flattered. "Oh, you flatter me!" This certainly made a pleasant change from Hikaru. "I'm delighted to see that you've taken up with such an attractive young man, Kaoru-kun."

"Er, yes, Kyouya-sempai's always been quite the charmer," Kaoru said, looking amused. He took Kyouya by the arm. "If you'll excuse us, please?" She nodded, still starry-eyed from Kyouya's compliments.

"What was _that_?" Kaoru said, laughing.

Kyouya chuckled too. "You ought to learn how to flatter people sometime too, Kaoru. But then, our circumstances are different." He shrugged. "I have two brothers, and I'm determined to inherit the Ootori business. You and your brother can do as you please. You're both going to take control of the Hitachiin Design."

"Do you really think that I ought to learn to praise people like that?" Kaoru asked.

Kyouya shook his head. "No, you're right. Stay as you are. It's too hard a lesson to learn, and it isn't one I'd want anyone to. Especially not you." He half-smiled down at the younger boy.

"Aw, sempai, that's sweet," Kaoru joked, pretending to bat his eyelashes. Kyouya just laughed and took his arm.

"Let's start moving. Maybe we can even forge some useful alliances for the Ootori around here…" Kyouya joked. "And you can criticize the paintings to your heart's content."

The Hitachiin matriarch watched them with surprised and rather pleased eyes. There was a sparkle to Kaoru, and she watched the redhead laughing affectionately at a distinguished-looking older boy.

"Hitachiin-sama! Delightful to see you again."

"Nanahara-san," she said, turning to face the other woman. "Oh, hello. How are you doing?"

"Just fine," Nanahara-san said, beaming. "And I was just talking to your son Kaoru. And his darling friend! Such a charming young man. Er, pity Hikaru couldn't make it," she added hastily. "But still, Kaoru-kun seems to be enjoying himself with Ootori-kun."

"I see," she said slowly, a smile forming on her face. A photographer from the Style section of the newspaper took a picture of Kyouya and Kaoru. Both of them were laughing, and for once, the Shadow King had allowed his genuine smile to be captured on film. With a grin on her lips, she slipped away from the party. "Home," she instructed the driver, and relaxed. She had no worries about her son being lonely.

* * *

"Thanks for a great night, sempai," Kaoru said, settling down against the leather seats of the Ootori car beside Kyouya. Kyouya simply smiled at him and stared out the window, looking at the night sky. "I would have missed out on so much fun if it wasn't for you."

"It's not a problem, Kaoru," Kyouya said. "And thank you too. I made some valuable connections," he joked. "But I did enjoy myself. And we got to poke fun at some really awful art."

"I feel like I'm seeing the real you come out, sempai," the Hitachiin commented with a mischievous smirk.

"Perhaps," Kyouya said. He checked his watch. "We still have class tomorrow."

Kaoru yawned. "Yeah. I hope I don't fall asleep in the middle of a lecture or something." He grimaced. "I can just picture what a hassle it'll be for you to wake up in the morning. Ugh. I pity your maids." He looked up at Kyouya. "Sorry, it's my fault. If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have stayed up so late."

"Don't be. If I hadn't gone with you tonight, I would probably be up anyway, balancing some accounts or checking on the assets and liabilities of one of our companies. Either that or that idiot would have found some way to bother me." He realized that, remarkably, he had spent a whole evening without thinking of Tamaki. Being with Kaoru really did have its bonuses. "So I'm glad that I came along. That and you're pleasant company."

The redhead nodded sleepily. "Mm-hmm. If you say so," he said. "I can't see how, though…"

"If you're tired, just sleep," Kyouya said. "I'll wake you up when we get to your house."

"O-okay," Kaoru said, and shut his eyes.

Kyouya watched him sleep. There was something vulnerable about the younger boy that appealed to something protective in him. Maybe it was the same instinct that made him want to look after Tamaki, sometimes. So gently that no one would ever have believed it, he smoothed the Hitachiin's hair away from his face and gazed at the shadows dancing under the redhead's eyelashes.

"We're here, Ootori-sama," his driver said, keeping his voice down when he noticed the slumbering Hitachiin in the backseat beside his master. "The Hitachiin residence."

"Kaoru," Kyouya said softly, shaking him. "Wake up. We're here."

Kaoru mumbled in his sleep. "Five more minutes," he said.

Kyouya sighed. Kaoru could very well get a stiff neck for sleeping in that position, but he didn't have the heart to wake him up. Carefully, he eased the younger Hitachiin out of the car. "Give me a hand," he muttered to his driver, who helped to hoist him into Kyouya's arms. "Ring the doorbell for me."

The butler answered it, and the maids behind him gave a little squeak of surprise at seeing Kaoru being carried like that. "It's all right, he just fell asleep," Kyouya said quietly. "Could you show me where his room is? I'll just put him there."

Hikaru appeared, in his green-striped pajamas. "What the hell are you doing to my brother?" he growled.

"He's asleep, Hikaru," Kyouya said coolly. "I'm not 'doing' anything to your brother." He smiled charmingly at one of the maids. "Excuse me. Could you please direct me to Kaoru's room?"

"A-at once," she said, turning pink at his politeness. Hikaru certainly never addressed any of them that way. Deciding to disregard the annoyance on Hikaru's face, she guided Kyouya to Kaoru's room.

Kyouya took note of the distance. It was a lot further away than he thought. Not that he minded carrying Kaoru, but he knew it was mainly because Kaoru wanted to keep his distance from Hikaru and his room.

He put the Hitachiin down on the bed and covered him with a blanket. "Sleep well, Kaoru," he said softly, before switching off the lights and closing the door behind him.

He caught a flash of red at the corner of his eye and turned around. He expected to be faced with an irate Hikaru, but it was their mother, smiling quietly at him.

"Hello. Ootori-kun, I presume?"

"Yes, Hitachiin-sama." He bowed. "I'm sorry for keeping Kaoru out so late. We rather lost track of the time."

She smiled. "I don't mind that in the least. I'm sure that my Kaoru had a good time with you." She nodded. "Won't you have a cup of tea before you go?"

"No, thank you. It's kind of you to offer, but I really must be getting home as well."

She nodded. "And Ootori-kun?"

"Yes, Hitachiin-sama?"

"Take good care of him. I'm entrusting him to you, you understand?"

He blinked once behind his glasses, then slowly nodded his head. "As you wish, Hitachiin-sama." He offered her his most likable smile. "But if I may speak honestly, I would have done so anyway, even if you hadn't told me." He bowed again. "Goodnight, Hitachiin-sama."

* * *

A/N: And on that enigmatic note I leave you. Hahahaha. I have exams for two more days and a ton of projects to do after that. I had to miss three straight weeks of class because I was in training for so many competitions, and now I'm definitely paying for it. Even as I type this I'm meant to be studying for Chemistry and Research. Ah well. Cheers, all. More reviews, faster updates, as you all know. Thank you for reading! 


	6. The Great Divide

A/N: Thanks to one and all who reviewed. I apologize for the late update... been busy training for a competition tomorrow. I'd especially like to thank MadoushiClef, who knew what I was going to do with Tamaki and the picture even before I posted. Even if I lost the element of surprise... lols. Anyway, thank you to the people who didn't lose patience with my slow pace! You guys all deserve a big batch of Kaoru's cookies.

Without further ado, I present Chapter Five. Angst and evil plots ahead. You have been warned!

* * *

There's a storm hitting tomorrow, and I have no idea whether I'll be subjected to another week-long power outage, so I'm apologizing in advance in case I'm slow in replying to your reviews. Love you guys! Thanks again.

Kyouya had a splitting headache when he was woken up by six alarm clocks simultaneously going off. "Never again," he vowed, as he always did when he woke up after staying up the whole night. Not that he ever kept that promise, of course. Usually he would ignore it in favor of finishing some business task or another, or doing extra-credit homework which ensured that he stayed at the top of the class. Honestly? The vow never worked.

Still, he _always_managed to convince himself that he would keep it.

He groped at the nightstand and found one. "Aha," he muttered vaguely, throwing it across the room and letting it smash against the wall. He would have smiled, if he wasn't so utterly pissed off.

Fuyumi winced. "Sure you feel up to going in there?" she asked the visitor sympathetically, as yet another heavy thud sounded from inside Kyouya's room.

"Thanks, Fuyumi-san, but I think I'll be okay," he said, smiling back—albeit rather worriedly, it must be confessed.

"I_definitely_don't envy you," she said, shaking her head.

Kyouya was about to pitch another alarm clock at the door when it opened, and he quickly retracted his arm. He had long since learned his lesson, after the time he had accidentally nailed one of the maids in the forehead. Even half-asleep, he had a killer arm.

"Uh, hi, sempai," said Kaoru, noting the alarm clock poised in the Shadow King's hand, just ready to be thrown at him. "Er. I think I'll just back off until you let go of that."

Kyouya put it down. Kaoru automatically handed him a cup of coffee, which Kyouya accepted with a nod and thanks.

"What brings you here, Kaoru?" he asked, his brain finally registering that the Hitachiin was standing in his bedroom on a weekday, by himself and already in his school uniform. "Not that it isn't a pleasant surprise."

Kaoru smiled tentatively. "I just wanted to thank you, you know, for last night," he said awkwardly. "And make sure that you woke up okay."

The Shadow King nodded, slipping out of bed. "That's thoughtful of you," he said. He remembered his good manners at the last instant. "You ought to go down first, perhaps join my sister Fuyumi for breakfast—although _what_she's doing here I have no idea, since she's already married."

"He's on a business trip!" they heard a muffled yell through the door. "Mother invited me to come here while he was away!"

Kyouya sighed. "Typical. That was just a throwaway line to get her to reveal herself. She never learns." He grinned at Kaoru. "Look, go join her first. I'm sure she'll keep you busy with all her nonsense. But I have to shower and wash up first. Do you mind? We can go to school together—unless you're going with Hikaru, of course."

"Ah… no, he's still mad at me," he said softly.

"I see," Kyouya said. He knew that the real reason Kaoru had come was because he was feeling lonely. It must have been difficult to adjust to just being alone after spending your life with someone else. Every single day, every single hour, every single minute, every single second. "I would be honored to have your company on the way to school, in any case," he said. "Just go on ahead, I'll get cleaned up, all right? And if Fuyumi gets annoying, feel free to hit her. Or tell me, if you feel you can't hit a girl."

Kaoru laughed. "Okay, sempai," he said, going out and carefully closing the door behind him. He found himself almost nose-to-nose with Fuyumi, who had evidently been listening at the door. "Ack! What the heck were you doing there?"

She blushed. "Well, I'm just concerned for my little brother, that's all," she admitted. "He's not exactly the sociable type, is he? Not that I can blame him, the silly thing. Come on, have breakfast with me."

The redhead's stomach rumbled. He had been in a hurry to get out of the house earlier, since Hikaru was in such a foul mood. Normally he would have sat there and simply endured it; but that was in the days where he knew that no matter how angry his brother was, they were still friends, and in a matter of minutes they would be laughing again. And he hadn't had anyone else to turn to.

But now he did.

"I have to say, though, I'm impressed," said Fuyumi, as she led him through the magnificent Ootori mansion. "There aren't many out there who could venture into the den of the sleeping demon and come out alive." She winked at him. "Come on, I had them make pancakes with extra maple syrup for breakfast. Kyouya will positively loathe me for it—he _hates_sweet things—but then, I like them, so he doesn't really have much of a say in the matter." She gave a trilling laugh. "If he really wanted to get his breakfast preferences, he ought to just wake up earlier."

"That's impossible," Kaoru said, shaking his head. "Sempai's scary in the mornings. Imagine him if you deprived him of even more sleep." He shuddered. "But you know, maybe he's gotten used to sweet things." He shoved his hands into his pockets, thinking of the comment which oh-so-unfortunately got videotaped by Renge that day.

She looked at him shrewdly. "You don't say," she said. "Perhaps you're right, Hitachiin-kun." She probed at him a little. "I haven't seen him hanging around Tamaki-kun lately."

Kaoru turned red. "Er, well, Tamaki-sempai's always so busy," he stammered, knowing it to be a flimsy excuse.

Yeah, especially since Fuyumi knew that Tamaki had tried calling Kyouya at least fifty times a night. Not that he was _obsessive_or anything…

"Is that so?" she asked. "Did they have a fight?"

"No, of course not," Kaoru said. "Tamaki-sempai and Kyouya-sempai are best friends."

"They don't seem to be acting like it anymore," she said, scrutinizing him. "But you know, I don't think he seems as lonely as he used to. Kyouya's very misunderstood, you know." She sounded a bit corny when she said that, but she really meant it. "It's hard on him—being the third Ootori. What do you think, Hitachiin-kun?"

"I—"

"_I_think that you'd better stop harassing my guest, Fuyumi-oneesan," Kyouya said, coming out from his room. "And you have some explaining to do, seeing as I asked you to be a good hostess and have a meal set out for our guest. I certainly didn't ask you to stand outside my door chattering about idle things." He glared at her. "If you have anything to ask me about Tamaki, well, ask _me._ Don't bother Kaoru."

Fuyumi held up her hands in surrender. "All right, all right. I'm just worried about you, Kyouya. You know that."

He said nothing. It would be very embarrassing to have a scene right in front of Kaoru. Instead, he allowed Fuyumi to lead the both of them to the dining room. He glanced down at the syrupy stack of pancakes on his plate and, without uttering a word of complaint, cut apart a portion.

She stared at him. "Since when have you liked maple syrup?" she asked him.

"I've just gotten used to sweeter things, I guess," he said distractedly. He glanced at Kaoru and smiled. "Maple syrup's your favorite, isn't it?"

Kaoru mock-smiled at him. "Is that in your secret Host Club member files or what?"

"Yes, actually," Kyouya said pleasantly. "And more besides."

Fuyumi watched the two with a wistful smile. They really went well together, although for a while she had had her hopes pinned on Tamaki. But then, perhaps, the slightly air-headed, overly dramatic blond was not Kyouya's type. No, she watched Kaoru unconsciously touch Kyouya's arm as they laughed together, and she smiled to herself. She only hoped that Kaoru wouldn't break Kyouya's heart. And that her stupid little brother—so smart, in so many ways—would just realize that love was right in front of him.

* * *

"We're going to be late," Kyouya said through gritted teeth, his voice making his impatience clear. "Fuyumi-oneesan, is this completely necessary?" They had just finished eating, and just as they had drained the last drops of their coffee, Fuyumi had asked him to go through some accounts her husband had left for her last night. "I could do it later."

"Humor me," she said, her steely tone matching his own. It was rare that Fuyumi showed what some called her 'Ootori-side'—she was always so warm, sweet and _human_that it was hard to believe that she was a member of the same family that once scared a business rival to death (no joke—it was in the headlines). At times like this, even Kyouya gave way to her. Maybe it was its infrequency that made it so potent, but everyone save the Ootori head feared her at those times.

"I don't mind waiting a bit, sempai," Kaoru said. "And we still have two hours before school starts."

Kyouya sighed. "As you wish," he said, taking the papers from Fuyumi. He scanned through them quickly "Although I now rather regret getting up so early."

"Because we have a meeting at the host club today before class, remember, sempai?" Kaoru reminded him. "But it's okay, I'm sure that Tamaki-sempai and the others are running late as always."

"Yes, that idiot is always late, even if he's the one who's always calling these silly meetings." Kyouya's eyes grew distant. "Fool."

He was so preoccupied that he barely noticed the warm hand that shook him out of his thoughts. "Sempai…"

He smiled quietly. "Ah, yes. Thank you, Kaoru." He rose. "You ought to have told me earlier, oneesan." He glanced at Kaoru. "Are you sure you'll be okay here?" _With Fuyumi?_

"I'm not going to kill him, Kyouya," she said dryly.

The Shadow King glared at her. "I didn't mean to imply otherwise," he said. "I thought that that went without saying. Excuse me, please."

Fuyumi waited until he was completely out of earshot. "Always so serious," she said, rolling her eyes.

"That's just the way sempai is," Kaoru replied.

"I miss the way he was when he was little. But he was always a very quiet child," she said, toying idly with her cup. "Very lonely, I suppose."

She didn't miss the way the boy's honey eyes sparked with interest and concern. "But I suppose that was to be expected," she sighed. "Too many classes and not enough fun for Kyouya. That was the way he grew up. He needed love. He didn't get much of it. Mother was always too busy with her charities. She didn't exactly think of the old adage, 'charity begins at home'. Poor Kyouya."

He ducked his head, as though he was trying to block out what she was saying. She wasn't going to let him off the hook so easily. "And you know—"

"Fuyumi-san," he said, cutting her off with surprising firmness. "I'm sorry for interrupting, but I don't think that sempai would be very happy if he knew that you were telling me all this."

She eyed him suspiciously. "Well, I thought that as you _are_his friend, you would be concerned—"

He wasn't daunted by her sharp tone. "I'm sorry, Fuyumi-san. I am concerned—very, in fact. But I can't do that to Kyouya-sempai. If he wanted me to know, he would have told me. I've already heard far too much before about him that I shouldn't have, that he wouldn't have wanted me to know. And I think that he has the right to choose what to tell me." He shrugged. "And to be honest, Fuyumi-san, it isn't hard to tell that Kyouya-sempai was lonely when he was little. No offense to your family or anything."

"None taken," she said, mollified by his answer. "But out of curiosity, Kaoru-kun… you said that you've already heard a lot before. From whom?"

He bit his lip. "Sorry, Fuyumi-san. My lips are sealed."

She smirked. "Your eyes give you away, even if you don't want them to."

He grinned crookedly. "I suppose that's true. It's the same even with my twin brother." He looked away. "We're a bit too alike, I suppose."

"Wrong."

The Shadow King stepped into their line of sight. "Not sneaky enough, Fuyumi-oneesan." He looked at her with hard eyes. "You were testing Kaoru. I won't forgive you the next time." He tossed the papers at her. "Too easy. You underestimate me."

"Don't blame me for worrying about my baby brother," she said, not even blushing at being caught. She tilted her head. "Just for the record, Kaoru-kun, I only had Kyouya's best interests at heart. I hope you won't be mad at me."

"Of course not, Fuyumi-san," the redhead said, wondering where she got the gall. Most people would be terrified of pissing Kyouya off, and the Shadow King looked ready to spit sparks at her. Instead, she kept smiling serenely at the two of them.

"Love him," she whispered softly to Kaoru. "With all your heart." Kaoru turned redder than his hair.

Kyouya glared daggers at her. "Whatever nonsense you're filling his head with—cut it out."

"Of course, Kyouya," she said, smirking at him. "Have a good day, you two."

* * *

They were all itching to ask the question, and Hikaru knew it. Still, Haruhi had been holding her tongue—not an easy thing for the blunt cross-dresser to do—and Hunny was, at the moment, busy stuffing his mouth full of sweets so that he wouldn't be tempted to be the one to pose the query. They had called a host club meeting early in the morning today—Tamaki's idea, and it was bound to involve yet another stupid, pointless scheme that Kyouya was sure to reject on the spot—and they were impatiently waiting for the three missing members: Kyouya, Kaoru and Tamaki.

Honestly, Hikaru almost wished that Tamaki would show up. At least he would do something stupid to take the attention off what he knew everyone was currently focusing on.

"Where's Kaoru?"

Hikaru blinked. Of all people, it was Mori.

"I don't know," he answered finally. He glared. "It's none of my business, of course—I'm just his brother, that's all." He stuffed his hands into his pockets. "He left with one of the cars earlier today and sent it back about ten minutes after he left."

"It would take longer than that to get to school," Haruhi said, frowning. "Don't you even know where he went? He might not even have come to the school."

"Nag, nag, nag," the Hitachiin said, his lips pursing into a scowl. "I'm not my brother's keeper."

Hunny paused, putting down the chocolate bar he'd been nibbling on. "That's not a nice thing to say, Hika-chan," he said sternly. "You're not his keeper, but you're his _brother._ Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

The redhead looked away. _Of course it does. But Kaoru always makes it so damn complicated! _"That doesn't have anything to do with it," he said carelessly. Haruhi was frantically signaling at him to shut up, but he ignored her. "Just because he's my brother doesn't mean I have to care about him."

Haruhi winced. "Ah… sorry, I heard something I wasn't supposed to hear," said Kaoru from the doorway, clutching his schoolbag tightly to his chest. He ducked his head. "I'll… I'll just leave now, all right?"

Hikaru jumped up. "Kaoru, wait, I didn't mean it!" he yelled after his twin, but Kaoru had already dashed off.

"Maybe that'll teach you to think before you speak, Hika-chan," Hunny said quietly. He looked with perfect seriousness up at the younger boy. "Go after him."

"I didn't mean—"

"Of course you didn't mean it," Mori said. "But that doesn't change the fact that you said it anyway." He looked darkly at the older Hitachiin. "So go."

The glare that the three sent his way made him jump up and tear out the room, searching for his twin. _I didn't mean it. I'm sorry, Kaoru. I've always been trying to act cool. _And if he was honest with himself, he would have admitted that he was a little jealous of the way his little brother was always hanging around Kyouya now. He hated thinking that his twin might not need him anymore. _Where did you go? _"Kaoru!" he yelled, but no answer came back to him except for the surprised glances he got from passing students.

"Hikaru-kun?" said one of the girls. He recognized her as one of the host club fans, and he cursed his bad luck and halted. "Um… I hate to bother you… but I saw Kaoru-kun running down the corridor that way," she said timidly. "I didn't know whether it was you or him, but he seemed kind of upset. It's a dead-end there except for the computer room, which is empty right now. He probably went there."

He smiled and inwardly vowed never to think ill of fan girls again. "Thanks!" he called out over his shoulder as he ran down the direction she'd pointed him to. Already he was rehearsing what he wanted to say to his twin.

_Sorry. So sorry, Kaoru._

_I've been an idiot recently… _

"Kaoru!" he said, yanking open the door to the computer room. He halted at the sight of his little brother held in the Shadow King's arms, tears soaking the older boy's shirt.

Kyouya glanced angrily up at him as he let Kaoru cry on his uniform. "Hello, Hikaru," he greeted him, in a tone like spoken shards of ice. His eyes were filled with unabashed abhorrence, although the next moment he turned his head slightly and the light glanced off his glasses, hiding his expression. "What brings you here?"

Hikaru blanched. "Kaoru…"

"Haven't you distressed him enough?" the Shadow King enquired. His level tone was deadly. "Just go already."

"I just said some things I didn't mean," Hikaru said desperately. "Look, I just wanted to say that I'm—"

"Sorry?" Kaoru whispered, not raising his head from Kyouya's chest. "You always say that, Hikaru. And I'm sorry too."

"Sorry for what?" Hikaru asked, bewildered. A tiny bubble of hope rose up in him. _Sorry for being so chummy with the Shadow King? Yeah. And now Kaoru will just walk over here to me, and it'll all be okay again. The second it happens, I swear I'll never take him for granted again. _

"I'm sorry because I always believed you, each time you said it," Kaoru said, clearer and louder this time. He slipped away from the Shadow King, turning to face Hikaru. "But I think it's pretty obvious to both of us that the whole brother thing has just gone wrong, don't you think?" He smiled faintly. "I guess that siblings do have to grow apart. I just didn't think that it would end up like _this._" Something seemed to snap behind his eyes. "And I'm okay with it, really, I am," he said, taking a deep breath. He put a smile on his face. "I know now."

"Know what?" Hikaru demanded, his eyes widening. Kaoru wasn't making sense. None of this even seemed real.

Kyouya understood. "I see," he said softly, putting a hand on Kaoru's shoulder.

"See what?" the older Hitachiin said. "Kaoru, come on. I don't get any of this."

Kaoru shrugged. "Nothing important, Hikaru. You go ahead to the club," he said. "And don't worry; I'm not mad at you." He looked distantly at his brother. It seemed ages and ages away that Hikaru had really 'gotten' any of this anyway.

"It was a mistake," Hikaru said, looking down at his feet.

_It all was. _"I_know_," Kaoru said, voice full of compassion. "And it's okay."

Hikaru looked doubtfully at him. "Then… um… I…"

Kaoru just shrugged. "Go on ahead. I just have a few things to organize with Kyouya-sempai." He looked levelly at Hikaru. "Just leave us." His tone brooked no refusal, and Hikaru scurried away.

"But it isn't okay, is it?" Kyouya asked.

"No, it isn't," Kaoru agreed remotely.

* * *

They_did_arrive for the morning meeting, in their own fashion. Kyouya had never been late—ever—but today he was behind schedule by five minutes. He sighed, hoping that the host club king wasn't there. Tamaki would throw a fit, unless he himself was late. But unfortunately for him, the blond was there and already halfway through a rant.

"Kyouya! What is the meaning of _this_?"

The Shadow King didn't even step back as Tamaki shoved a newspaper in his face. He took it calmly. "Ah," he said, pushing his glasses up his nose. "It's a picture, Tamaki. It's not going to sit up and do tricks."

Tamaki turned red. "I know that!" he said. "But look at the picture!"

Haruhi sighed. "He's been at it ever since he got in, sempai," she said softly to Kyouya.

"It looks like a nice shot to me," Kyouya deadpanned. "Best angle possible, good lighting, the positioning of the subjects is ideal—"

Kaoru peeked out from behind him. "Oh! That's us from last night," he said, vaguely recalling the photographer who'd snapped the shot. He scrutinized it. "Wow, sempai. You look really nice here."

"Thank you, Kaoru. As do you, of course." Kyouya smiled at him before turning back to his best friend. "What seems to be distressing you, Tamaki?"

"You didn't even tell me you were going anywhere!"

"I wasn't aware that I had to answer to you for where I was going and who I was going with," Kyouya said evenly. "It isn't like you to complain of my comings and goings."

Tamaki winced. "Fine," he huffed. "Be that way."

Kyouya sighed—he was so sick of always humoring Tamaki's unpredictable, childish tempers. "Why does it upset you anyway?" he commented.

His best friend looked away. "I called you last night and you weren't answering."

"I know you did. Twenty times—but of course nothing obsessive, right?" Kyouya said, voice completely neutral. Or perhaps just neutral enough for the sarcasm to be more stinging than it would have been had he simply come out and been snotty about it.

Kaoru looked at them. "Um… sempai… sorry," he said, offering Tamaki a tentative smile. "We turned off both our phones while we were in the gallery."

"Don't be unreasonable, Tama-chan," said Hunny. "They look really, really cute in this picture!"

Kyouya didn't normally like candid shots of himself. He preferred to be prepared for the camera at all times, so that he could slip on one of his masks. In most of his surprise photos, he looked languid but sharp, his eyes glittering with hidden plans, his mouth a grim line or a self-satisfied smirk. It was Ootori Kyouya stripped of all his humanity.

But in this picture, he was smiling. No, _laughing._ His head was thrown back so that he caught the light, and he looked, for once, completely at ease with himself and the world. As if he was so happy he had forgotten everything else.

Tamaki frowned at it. It was the first time that he had ever seen Kyouya look like that. In his pictures with the Shadow King, he was always painfully aware of how poised and perfect Kyouya looked; it was always the façade. Or else he looked grim and just plain scary. "Sorry," he said, forcing a smile on his face. "But daddy wasn't happy that mother was keeping secrets from him again."

"It wasn't really a secret, Tamaki. It was just a spur-of-the-moment thing."

And there again. _Spur-of-the-moment._ Kyouya was never spontaneous. He analyzed, calculated, and weighed all options before making a move. The Shadow King was changing, and Tamaki wasn't sure that he liked it.

"It almost seems like this isn't you in the picture, sempai," Haruhi told Kyouya with her characteristic bluntness.

Kyouya smirked. "I'm not sure whether I should be insulted or flattered," he said. "But thank you anyway, Haruhi."

"You look really happy, sempai!" said Kaoru, grinning at him. "I feel like I caught a glimpse of the woolly lamb under the wolf's skin."

Kyouya didn't blush. He was much too self-controlled for that. But there was that glimpse again—of a something that he could not, or would not, hide. He just rolled his eyes and smiled back at Kaoru. "Devilish twin," he said, putting one hand atop Kaoru's head. "Don't get too big for your breeches, or the Shadow King will roast you."

Kaoru burst out laughing. "Sempai!" he protested. "Don't be mean, it's all true!" Hunny immediately joined in on the fun, egging them on.

Tamaki folded his arms across his chest. "I don't like it," he muttered malevolently.

From beside him, Hikaru's golden eyes darted in his direction. "Neither do I," he said in an undertone.

Haruhi frowned at them. "You two had better leave them alone," she whispered. "I think it's great—they both seem a lot happier now that they're close. Don't you want them to be happy?"

"Of course I want Kaoru to be happy," Hikaru said. "But not with—with_that_."

"Same goes," Tamaki said, glaring at Hikaru.

Mori grunted. "You both see things a little too late," he said.

Hikaru's brow furrowed. "Huh?"

"Nothing."

"Just try to smile and be happy that they're friends already," Haruhi said, poking the two of them in the ribs.

Tamaki sighed. "I'll try. Honestly, I will."

* * *

Tamaki was fed up.

It didn't take long.

Not to say, of course, that he hadn't tried his best, as he had promised Haruhi. But it was kind of hard to deal when he… just felt so _not there._

A whole week had gone by since that incident, and he had put up with a whole week of eating with Hikaru and Haruhi (while Hikaru often monopolized Haruhi's attention), sitting in class without talking to his best friend, and even skipping their weekend tutorial sessions, since Kyouya said that he couldn't spare the time anymore. His grades had taken a brutal nosedive, and his host king charm had taken a turn for the worse; Kyouya had spoken to him then, but only to berate him for losing customers.

Otherwise, Kyouya was always 'Kaoru-this' and 'Kaoru-that' (or at least, that was how he saw it). Every other word that popped out of the Shadow King's mouth was about that devilish twin. Every spare second of his time was spent with the redheaded freshman. It was driving Tamaki crazy.

Whenever he tried to with them at lunch, it seemed that Kyouya and Kaoru could pass the whole meal hour without speaking a single word; they merely sat there, chewing silently, sometimes looking at each other in a way that suggested telepathic communication. It wasn't exactly a pleasant way to spend lunch, trying to fill in the hush with awkward babbling and getting yes or no answers or sometimes noncommittal nods in return—at first, they had tried to feed him the perfunctory, polite small talk, but soon after they seemed to have decided he wasn't worth the effort. And he hated the silence that they seemed to thrive in. So it was really no wonder that he had given up on that, resigning himself to playing tug-of-war with Hikaru for Haruhi's attention.

In class, Kyouya would be completely focused on what the teacher was saying. His gaze never wandered over to the blonde anymore, and he refused to indulge Tamaki's idle chatter. Sometimes Kyouya would stare off into space, as though thinking of deep things. When Tamaki asked him what was up, it would always be some variation of, "I wonder what Kaoru's doing/studying/thinking…" or something like, "It's really nothing that you should concern yourself with, Tamaki."

And another thing: Kyouya rarely answered his calls anymore. But in between classes, either Kaoru was calling or _he_called Kaoru. It was amazing that _anyone_could get the Shadow King to ring up when it wasn't a matter related to business and profits.

"We have to do something," Tamaki said during one lunch hour as he watched Kyouya place a hand on the redhead's shoulder, talking animatedly. Kaoru laughed, looking up into the senior's eyes, and Tamaki used his thumb to mash a lump of butter from his bread roll into his napkin with unwonted force.

Hikaru was stewing too. Kaoru seemed to be deliberately ignoring him. His twin went to his room and locked the door as soon as he got home, and only ventured out to eat—actually, he would bolt down his food and dash back to his room; sometimes he even had his meals sent up on a tray for him instead of coming down, condemning Hikaru to silent dinners and breakfasts alone or occasionally with his mother or father.

Plus, Kaoru was delighting their mother with gorgeous new designs—lots and lots of them, all designed for a dark-haired, dark-eyed model with pale skin and a cool smile that the Hitachiin matriarch pronounced 'simply darling'. All of his drawings were made for people who looked like Kyouya. He even made one of the outfits already; in just a week, he had managed to put together a whole ensemble. And he had given it to Kyouya, who wore it the next day, much to the delight of the fan girls who recognized Kaoru's handiwork.

If it had just been an act at the host club, he wouldn't have minded so much. Okay, so may be he _did_sort of mind that about eighty-five percent of all customers now flocked to Kyouya and Kaoru, edging Tamaki out for the spot of being the club's number-one draw. Especially since the loyal customers (in other words, the other fifteen percent) were Tamaki's die-hard princesses who couldn't do without his syrupy nonsense, Haruhi's quiet, reserved companions who enjoyed Haruhi's refined company, and Hunny and Mori's fans that enjoyed the loli-shota complex that even Kyouya and Kaoru weren't able to provide. He was, well, kind of in the middle.

He rarely spoke to his twin anymore. Sometimes he would talk about the host club, but he didn't plan pranks with Hikaru or seek out his company the way he used to. It hurt Hikaru; it was as though Kaoru was saying that he didn't need him anymore. He even listened at Kaoru's door sometimes, catching strains of phone conversations and light laughter. It was always Kyouya, every night, without fail.

And although Tamaki didn't know it, Kaoru and Kyouya were meeting up in the afternoons and evenings, too. They went out together at least twice a week, abandoning Hikaru as they dashed off to museums and parties and cafes. It was always just the two of them, the way it used to be with him and Kaoru.

Kyouya's hand was on his brother's shoulder… and Kaoru wasn't pushing it off.

"Yep," Hikaru said, glowering at them. They seemed to be completely oblivious to his scowl. In the old days (B.K.—or Before Kyouya, as Hikaru dubbed it) Kaoru would have known immediately that something was wrong.

But now, Kaoru didn't even notice him.

Haruhi sighed. "Leave me out of this," she said, getting to her feet and moving to sit with Hunny and Mori instead, a table away. As far as she was concerned, there was nothing wrong with… whatever it was that was between Kyouya and Kaoru.

Tamaki and Hikaru, however, didn't exactly see it that way.

"This is the first we-must-separate-Kaoru-and-Kyouya meeting," Hikaru said, slamming his fist on the table for emphasis. Haruhi let out a bored, frustrated sigh, shaking her head at the idiocy of it all. She and the two seniors were only there because Hunny-sempai had been lured in by the promise of cake, Mori-sempai went where Hunny-sempai led him, and then Hikaru and Tamaki had dragged her along. It was kind of hard to tell them that she didn't want to go when they both grabbed her under the arms and literally carried her in by force.

"Don't you think you're kind of overreacting to the situation?" she asked. "Kyouya-sempai and Kaoru aren't exactly doing anything wrong. Besides that, they aren't even officially a couple."

Hikaru scowled. "They call each other every night."

"And between classes," Tamaki added.

"They go around on _dates_," the redhead muttered, sounding revolted as he added emphasis to the last word. "At least twice a week."

"Dates?" Haruhi asked.

Tamaki ignored her query. "They eat lunch together."

"He makes clothes for Kyouya-sempai."

"He brings lunch for Kaoru everyday."

"Plus he—"

"Okay, I get it!" Haruhi yelled, covering her ears. Ugh. Curse those rich kids and their damn relationships. Mori patted her hand sympathetically, and she ventured a small smile in his direction. "But what do you guys want to happen?"

"We have to separate them," Tamaki said. "For the sanity and togetherness of the host club."

"What on earth are you talking about?" Haruhi asked.

"Yeah, why shouldn't Kyou-chan and Kao-chan be together?" Hunny asked.

Tamaki scowled. '"If they ever became a couple, the host club would fall apart."

"Yeah, didn't you hear sempai before? He said that he wasn't interested in the profit anymore," Hikaru pointed out. "That means that he could abandon the host club any day." Well, actually, Kyouya actually meant that it wasn't worth getting killed just for a little extra cash…

"Kyou-chan wouldn't do that!" Hunny protested. An uncertain light crept into his eyes. "At least… I don't think that he would do that…"

"And we all know that this club only survives through Kyouya's incredible calculating…that means that our group would have to part ways… perhaps forever," Tamaki said dramatically, shaking his head. "And no more free cakes." Hunny's eyes bugged out.

"Plus sempai would probably just force you to pay off your entire debt at once, Haruhi," Hikaru said. "You know, since the host club will be closing and there's no other way you can pay your debt off." Haruhi's jaw dropped open. What was her current debt balance anyway? She did some mental computations—oh no. There was no way that the host club could shut down.

Mori frowned. "But what if they're happier that way?"

"No!" Hunny and Haruhi objected simultaneously.

Tamaki grinned. Two more supporters. And where Hunny went, Mori would follow. Mori gave an unwilling grunt of assent, but he seemed to be displeased at the turn of events.

"Okay, so what are we going to do?" Haruhi asked.

"What are the most basic necessity and reason of and for a relationship?" Hikaru asked.

"Copulation?"

Hikaru wanted to slap her upside the head. "Not in biology, Haruhi! I mean in normal human relationships!"

"Oh. Why didn't you say so in the first place, then?"

"I thought that it would be obvious!"

Mori spoke up. "Communication."

Hikaru nodded. "That's right. Once you take _that_away, everything falls apart."

"You must be joking," Haruhi said. "How can you possibly prevent those two from talking? They're together all the time."

"You think we don't already know that?" Tamaki interjected.

Hikaru smirked. "Let me outline how we're going to do this…"

* * *

_First, cellphones. That's going to be the first to go._

"Hikaru… have you seen my phone?"

The older redhead looked up from his magazine. "Oh, here. You left it on the coffee table."

"Huh, really? I could have sworn… well, never mind. I must be getting a lot more scatter-brained these days. It didn't ring, did it?"

"Nope, nothing." Hikaru's lips pressed into a thin line, knowing that Kyouya usually called at that time.

"Huh… that's funny." Kaoru glided away, not knowing that Hikaru had just blocked Kyouya's number.

Tamaki had done the same with Kyouya's phone. "That's odd," Kyouya muttered when he got a 'no answer' screen after trying to call Kaoru's number.

"What is?" Tamaki asked.

"Kaoru isn't picking up…"

"I'm sure that he's just busy for once. Hey, want to go over the next club activity?"

Kyouya fiddled with his phone. After failing to reach Kaoru for the eighth time, he gave up. "All right, Tamaki. What do you have in mind?"

_Then, they _have_to stop meeting in the evenings._

"Kyouya, father just decided to let you sit in during the nightly meetings," Fuyumi said. "Apparently the Suoh head convinced him that it would be useful. Isn't that amazing?  
You've wanted this for ages."

Kyouya hesitated, putting his cellphone down on the table. That was odd… Kaoru hadn't called him. Nor was Kaoru answering his calls or text messages. In fact, he kept getting a 'no answer' screen, ever since his first attempt when Tamaki was there at the house with him. Maybe the redhead was busy "But that means that I'll have to go to their meetings every night."

His sister frowned. "Yes. Isn't that what you wanted?"

The Shadow King seemed torn. "Yes… all right. I suppose you're correct. When does this start?"

"Tonight."

He gaped at her. "Tonight?" He glanced at his watch. He was due to meet up with Kaoru to head to a play they'd both wanted to watch. "I—"

"Did you have something else planned? If you turn down this offer, father will never invite you to it again. You know that."

He nodded slowly. "Just… five minutes." Frantically he rang the Hitachiin home residence number. "Good evening, may I please speak to Kaoru? This is Ootori Kyouya speaking."

Hikaru frowned on the other line. Good thing Tamaki had warned him to be on standby beside the phone. "He's asleep. He's been tiring himself with designs recently."

"Oh," Kyouya said. "Er… we were supposed to go somewhere tonight. But it's okay; don't wake him up, then. Just tell him I called, will you, Hikaru?"

"Of course I will," Hikaru said smoothly, and hung up.

"Who was that?" Kaoru asked, sticking his head out of the bedroom door.

"Oh, one of those telemarketers. So annoying."

_And being together at lunch. That's one of the worst!_

"Kaoru-kun," their class president said. "I hate to bother you about this, but you're obviously perfect for the job. There's this wonderful opportunity… a design class during lunch period. Of course you can eat during the class, and they suddenly extended an offer to accommodate one of the freshmen when I told them that our class had a talented young designer. Do you want to join?"

Kaoru blinked. "Wow, really? But… during lunch…"

Their class president frowned. "It's okay, you know, you'll still be able to eat. And you'll make loads of new friends. It's a one-time offer only."

"Well… okay." _Kyouya-sempai will understand, I'm sure. It was an unofficial arrangement anyway._He smiled back at the class president, not seeing that the girl exchanged a thumbs-up with his beloved older brother. He hurried off to explain to Kyouya.

"Long time no see, stranger," Kyouya said, his face lighting up. "About last night—"

Kaoru nodded. "Hikaru told me," he said. Actually, Hikaru told him that Kyouya had left a message really late about the board meetings—not that he had asked to speak to Kaoru personally. "Um, see, about lunch…" He quickly explained. "I'm sorry, sempai."

Kyouya shrugged. "It's okay. You should take the opportunity. I couldn't think of anyone better for it to go to."

_Hmm… how about in between classes?_

"Kyouya-sama's busy right now," said the class president, looking sympathetically at Kaoru. She had thought that the budding friendship between the two boys was endearing, but who was she to disobey Suoh Tamaki?

"Oh," the redhead said, obviously disappointed. "Um… should I wait for him, then? We were supposed to go to club together."

She shook her head, feeling a stab of guilt. "I'm sorry. He said that you should just go ahead. It might take him a while to wrap up his business."

Kaoru hurried off just a few minutes before Kyouya finally managed to pull away from his classmates, who had, inexplicably enough, attached themselves to him like parasites. "Someko-san… did Kaoru stop by?"

"N-no, Kyouya-sama. I'm sorry." She forced a smile. "But I think I saw him go by with his brother. I think they were discussing something pretty deep."

"I see." Kyouya pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. He decided not to bring up the matter.

_And at the host club. But how are we going to pull that off?_

"See, if Kaoru-kun and Kyouya-sama get together, the host club will be shut down permanently," Renge explained to the girls. It had taken some convincing, but the rest of the host club had finally gotten her to see the light.

The girls let out shrieks of dismay. "That can't happen!"

"What happened to our fans?" Kaoru said, only half-joking, later that day.

Kyouya opened his mouth to answer, but found himself abruptly whisked away by one of the customers. "Kyouya-sama! Isn't it the weather wonderful today? By the way, I was wondering about—"

On the other hand, the other girls were plying Kaoru with requests to sit with them—and with Hikaru. To do their brotherly love act.

Kaoru hesitated. "I haven't been in practice," he muttered to Hikaru.

Hikaru winked at him. "Come on, dear brother. If anyone can do this, we can."

"I don't understand this at all," Kyouya muttered when they had finished. Kaoru had vanished, dragged away by some of the girls who had insisted that he accompany them to this 'delightful little tea shop' that they had seen. "What's going on?"

Renge sighed. "It looks like your pairing has already worn thin, Kyouya-sama," she said solemnly. "The novelty has worn off, and the girls seem to have gotten sick of it overnight."

Kyouya's brow creased into a frown. "Well…"

"It looks like you're going to have to get back to your 'cool type' act, Kyouya," Tamaki said. He clapped a warm hand on his best friend's back. "Welcome back."

_What about e-mail?_

_Are you kidding? It's too easy to hack into, so Kyouya doesn't have one._

_And Kaoru just shares an account with me, so at least I know that they don't use that._

By the end of a fortnight, Kyouya and Kaoru had barely talked to each other—or even seen each other, for that matter. They were always busy, always swamped by other people. Kyouya wondered why Kaoru wouldn't pick up when he called; Kaoru wondered why Kyouya wasn't calling. At night, Kaoru would go home so exhausted that he didn't have the time to design anymore. Kyouya would sit with Tamaki at lunch, listening silently to the blonde's jokes.

And strangely enough, Hikaru had suddenly stuck himself onto Kaoru for no reason. It wasn't like what had happened in the club before, where he just tied Kaoru down and expected him to stay there. Instead, Hikaru was the one who tagged along. Hikaru often came to his room, knocking and asking whether he wanted a cup of tea, or asking him whether he wanted to play a game, and so on.

Tamaki, on the other hand, had suddenly become more business-oriented. He discussed the business meetings with Kyouya and listened to the Shadow King's insights and recommendations. Often he would ask Kyouya's opinion, and now he _always_took the time to thank his best friend and listen to him before acting on impulse.

_We give them about a month of this treatment. After that, we'll see what happens… see, we can't keep this sort of thing up indefinitely. The design class will be completed by the end of the month, and there's no way that the customers can pull them apart like that forever._

_Not that it matters. By the end of the month, they'll practically be strangers._

* * *

"H-hey, sempai," Kaoru said. It was his first day in the cafeteria since design class had ended just yesterday. "How's it going?

Kyouya yawned. He hadn't been getting enough sleep lately, but he was still happy that his father had singled him out amongst his brothers for shouldering part of the Ootori responsibility. "It's been all right," he said. "There isn't much to talk about." An awkward silence fell between them.

They opened their mouths, and then closed them without saying anything. When had they run out of things to say? It was almost incredible to think that a month and two weeks could make all the difference between them laughing and them just staring at each other without a word

"Kyouya, there you are!" Tamaki said, putting down two trays with a huge grin. "I got you coffee with your lunch."

Kaoru blinked. "Since when do you buy lunch, sempai?"

The Shadow King closed his eyes. "I've been too busy to do otherwise lately," he said.

"Kaoru, over here!" Hikaru said, waving at him from an empty table on the other side of the room. He was surprised to see that Haruhi was sitting with Hunny and Mori instead of with his brother. "I got you the lunch set A."

The younger Hitachiin glanced over at him. "Ah, okay, I'll be there in a minute," he said. He turned back to Kyouya. "Um, sempai…"

Kyouya was fiddling with his paper napkin. "Yes?"

Kaoru halted. "I… it's nothing," he muttered. "Enjoy your lunch."

The Shadow King wondered whether he should ask why Kaoru was deliberately ignoring his calls, but he decided against it. Well, it was Kaoru's prerogative whether he wanted to talk to him or not, right? He sighed, gulping down his coffee.

"What's wrong, mother?" Tamaki asked.

"It's nothing, dad. I'm just tired, that's all," he replied. He rubbed at his temples, feeling the beginnings of a migraine pounding at his head. He dug into his bag for aspirin and popped it into his mouth. He'd been consuming quite a lot of it lately.

Had Kaoru just used him to make Hikaru jealous? It was possible… it was an option that he had considered, before, but he had thought that Kaoru wasn't that type of person. Perhaps he had thought wrong. It was always best to assume the worst in a person; wasn't that what business had taught him? How could he have forgotten all of that?

So as soon as Kaoru had gotten Hikaru, he dropped Kyouya.

"Why so down?" Hikaru asked Kaoru.

"I don't know," Kaoru said sadly. He checked his phone. He'd been trying to call Kyouya for the whole of the past month, but the Shadow King hadn't answered him once. He frowned. Now that the young Ootori was over Tamaki, he probably hadn't seen the need to keep Kaoru around. That figured… once Kyouya got busy, he completely ignored him. He clenched his fists. Hikaru had been right; Kyouya had just used him, but he had been too blind to realize it.

He was such an idiot. Everything that Kyouya had done in the past pointed to him being manipulative and sneaky. He was a pathological liar; all he cared for was profit. But he honestly thought that in the last few weeks that they'd spent together, Kyouya was actually a pretty nice person—much nicer than his reputation made him out to be, that was for sure.

Well, he'd thought wrong, hadn't he?

Hikaru shrugged. "You just need some fun," he said cheerfully. "Hey, c'mon, I have this great idea… you know that we never pulled a prank on that class before, the one in the third year group? Well, I came up with something and…"

Kaoru's attention wandered. He noticed that through Tamaki's babbling, Kyouya was also looking at him—but the gaze was angry, even a bit hurt. His head started to throb. What on earth was Kyouya looking at him for? _He_wasn't the one who'd been ignoring the other for more than a month now. He met the gaze steadily.

Kyouya frowned. Why was Kaoru wearing that sort of expression? Sure, so the younger Hitachiin had caught him staring… well, there was nothing wrong with that, was there? If Kaoru meant to pretend he didn't exist for more than a month, then he had every right to look at him like that.

Tamaki let out a falsely bright laugh. "C'mon, Kyouya, what's up? I thought that we were going over these statistics."

The Shadow King shook his head. "I'm just sick of it right now, okay?" he said. Yes, he was sick of it; he had gotten used to having the other boy around, much as he hated to admit that he had become dependent on anyone. He still wondered what Kaoru did/thought/studied/ate/felt/smiled about/liked. Before he fell asleep, he would try to call Kaoru—never mind that the younger boy had stopped taking his calls ages and ages ago. Or between classes. Kaoru never came by the classroom anymore either. He would go the host club with his twin brother.

"Kaoru… come on, work with me here," Hikaru said, grabbing at his younger brother's hand. "Hello? Earth to Kaoru?"

The younger Hitachiin looked away. "I guess I'm not in the mood, Hikaru," he muttered—turning down a prank for the first time since their long, mischief-filled brotherhood. What was up with him? He couldn't think straight, knowing that there was something wrong with him and Kyouya. Much as he was surprised by it, he realized that he _needed_the Shadow King around. Kyouya supported him, laughed with him, even put aside his business for him. He couldn't understand it. There was something that he couldn't define about it. It wasn't like with Hikaru, where he watched and did nothing more. Kyouya had become his anchor…

* * *

A/N: Longer chapter than usual... but I kind of hurried it, so it's unedited and all. Ugh. But thanks for reading this far, and please review! I have to go a.) train for the competition and b.) hit Hikaru and Tamaki on their heads with a saucepan. Thanks again! Please wish me luck for tomorrow's contest. If I win, I'll definitely try to update ASAP. 


	7. To Determine the Truth

A/N: Dearest readers, this is my Christmas present to you all--the LAST CHAPTER. Yes, you read it right. But don't worry, there's still an epilogue to come along; only thing is, it's mostly just a light-hearted filler.

Ahem. Anyway, I'd like to say thank you to everyone who reviewed this short little fanfic and cheered on Kyouya and Kaoru, especially those who started reviewing from the very beginning and continued with me to the very end. sniffles I enjoyed being with you guys and writing this. I'm dedicating this fic to all you wonderful readers out there. Thank you, thank you and thank you! Merry Christmas!

* * *

Chapter Five: To Determine the Truth

"I don't know how much longer I'll be able to stand this," Haruhi said. She fiddled with the sleeves of her jacket. "I've got guilt the size of the Pacific right now, and I think that we really hurt them."

Her eyes followed Kyouya and Kaoru's movements through the host club. Kyouya was busy calculating like always, but his eyes were far away, focused on something else—he was watching Kaoru. His heart didn't even seem to be in his equations for once. In fact, after a while, he put down his calculator and began rubbing at the back of his neck, as though weary of the whole ordeal. He shook off Tamaki's hand when the host king tried to ask him what was wrong.

"I'm fine, Tamaki. Just leave me alone," he muttered, carelessly tossing his notebook onto the table.

"But Kyouya!" Tamaki protested, scrambling to catch the notebook. He bit his lip. He didn't even have to ask what was wrong anymore. He already knew.

Kyouya gave him a death glare. "Stop being such a damn—!"

The look on Tamaki's face silenced him. "I'm sorry, Tamaki,' he sighed. "I didn't mean to say that. I'm not myself today." _I haven't been myself for quite a while now._

Kaoru, on the other hand, was sitting in a blue funk with some of the customers. The girls tried to force him into conversation, but he seemed too depressed to even talk properly. He replied as shortly as possible before lapsing back into silence, regardless of his brother's efforts to draw him into the fun.

"I just have a slight headache," he said. "Please, just go on talking without me."

"You could take an aspirin," one of the girls suggested.

Kaoru's smile thinned. That would mean going to the host club's medical room. And to go to the host club's medical room, he would have to pass by Kyouya. And if he passed by Kyouya, he was sure that he would snap and slap the Shadow King silly while asking him why the hell he was ignoring him.

"He's okay," Hikaru said quickly.

Haruhi shut her eyes. "I can't bear to watch them." They were so obviously lost and pained without each other that she couldn't help feeling like she had just killed someone. It was partly her fault that they were in this mess; they had been happy enough on their own. Why had she gone along with what Tamaki and Hikaru had said in the first place? It had been evil… and wrong.

Hunny nodded. "I thought that this would happen," he said. "But when Tama-chan told us that the host club would break up if they got together, I decided to help them. I didn't think it would be this bad, since Tama-chan and Hika-chan are so attentive to them now. But…"

"It was wrong, Mitsukini," Mori said softly, echoing Haruhi's thoughts. "They can't do without each other now, even with Hikaru and Tamaki."

"Well, now that we know it was wrong, what are we going to do?" Haruhi asked. It was a good thing that the three of them had a lot of time to plan since they didn't have customers at the moment. Most of them were trying to see whether they could cheer Kaoru up. Kyouya had already insisted that he was busy adding up their overhead, so he wasn't taking customers for that day.

Actually, he had insisted on not taking customers for quite a while now, on the same pretext. Before, he had added up the overhead in less than an hour. Now, he was claiming that he was still doing the same job for a week and a half. Even he knew how stupid and obvious his lie was, but he couldn't muster up the energy to make up something better. He wasn't usually the type to wear his heart on his sleeve, and now everyone could see how hurt he was over what had happened. But for the first time ever he couldn't do anything about it. He just couldn't help himself.

"I've never seen Kyouya-sempai like this," Haruhi muttered.

"It's worse than you think," Mori said darkly. Haruhi had only met the Shadow King now, as she'd never gotten mixed up in their social circle before. Before he met Tamaki, Kyouya was the epitome of perfection. Everyone had admired him—he was almost too good to be true, with kindness and warmth that could rival Buddha. But he had been lonely. A lot of his friends were superficial. He had never minded when they left.

But this time was different. This was the first time that Kyouya had actually opened his heart to someone who just vanished. "He's never lost anyone who really mattered to him before," Mori said. "And I think that Kaoru ended up being the most important person in his life in the time that they shared, without him even realizing it."

Haruhi stared down at her feet. "And Kaoru…"

"Has he ever really opened up to anyone but Hikaru?" Hunny pointed out softly. "Haru-chan, people say that you're included in their world, but that's not exactly true. It's not that Kao-chan doesn't like you… it's just that if he had had his way, it would have always been just him and Hika-chan alone in their private little universe, with no one else getting involved. Hika-chan was really the one who reached out and pulled you in. Kyou-chan was the first person whom he actually befriended _beyond_Hika-chan. And now that he's lost Kyou-chan…"

"We have to fix it somehow," Haruhi agreed. She glanced at Mori. "Maybe we could…?"

Mori shook his head. "If we tried to do anything, we'd only make it worse. The best thing to do now is to let them alone. Provided we can make Tamaki and Hikaru leave them alone too."

"How're we going to pull _that_off?" Haruhi asked. "Those two are practically sitting on Kaoru and Kyouya to keep them away from each other."

The senior frowned. "Things will take their course, Haruhi," he said. "Don't worry about it." He seemed to be meditating over something, as though debating with himself. "I think that it can be arranged somehow."

"But Takashi, how long is this going to take?" Hunny demanded. "Kyou-chan and Kao-chan…"

"Give it time," Mori said wisely.

Haruhi smiled. When Mori got like this, she felt like nothing could stop them; it was rare that he spoke so much, and when he did, it was a sign that he had a plan. And Mori never committed himself to something that he didn't have absolute faith and trust in. This would work.

Sometimes she wondered whether Mori saw more than Kyouya did. Now _that_was a scary thought. "I trust you, sempai," she said simply.

Mori offered her a small grin in return. "I just hope that those two will realize it, soon" he said. "Kyouya and Kaoru tend to wait and watch instead of act."

"Don't worry, Takashi! Your plan will succeed," Hunny reassured him. He turned to Haruhi. "Takashi's plans always work, even if they take a long time sometimes. It's because he's patient with what he really cares about."

Haruhi nodded. "I know that, Hunny-sempai," she said gravely. "I just hope that Kyouya-sempai and Kaoru are like that too." She crossed her fingers. All they needed was a little patience, a little love--and she was sure that things would be set right.

* * *

If Kyouya and Kaoru had been in their normal states of mind, they probably would have noticed that something was up in the weeks that followed. As it stood, they didn't even realize that Haruhi, Hunny and Mori kept Tamaki and Hikaru busy all the time.

Haruhi wasn't too happy with the part of the plan where she had to act all sweet and girly, though. But as Mori and Hunny predicted, Haruhi's 'home-cooked lunch', Haruhi 'wearing a cute dress' and Haruhi 'inviting them over to her house' was irresistible to the terrible two. And as she was an accessory to their 'crime', as Hunny put it, she went along with it, albeit slightly unwillingly.

On the other hand, Mori and Hunny kept orchestrating things so that Kyouya and Kaoru got together, which was how they found themselves looking at each other over bolts of cloth and fabric swatches, supposedly to make the costumes for tomorrow's activity almost a month after Haruhi, Mori and Hunny had put their plan in motion.

"The theme is star-crossed lovers," Kaoru said, reading from a slip of paper. He glanced at the Shadow King. The silence was almost oppressive. He tried to pitch his voice naturally, but inevitably found it going up a notch or two. "I'm surprised Mori-sempai would choose such a thing. It sounds more like something milord would pick."

Kyouya instinctively felt Kaoru's discomfort around him. "Yes, well, Mori-sempai is highly unpredictable at times," he said shortly. He was only here since Hikaru was busy with Haruhi, working on a math project together, Tamaki had been roped in by the Black Magic Club (courtesy of Hunny appealing to Kanazuki from 1-D, the scary 'curse-addict' who belonged to said club and had a major crush on the blond sempai) and Hunny had insisted that he go along with Kaoru.

Kaoru heard the detachment in Kyouya's tone. "We need costumes for Romeo and Juliet, Aragorn and Arwen, and… um… is this the Little Mermaid?"

Yes, Hunny definitely had a sick sense of humor. "I think it's the traditional fairy tale," Kyouya sighed. "It's a bit gruesome, but it'll suffice. There was once a mermaid who fell in love with a human prince. She wanted to shed her tail and gain human legs, so that she could be with him. So she visited a sea witch; in exchange, she offered up her power to speak." He pursed his lips. "In some versions, the witch just silences her forever; in more realistic ones, her tongue's cut off."

Kaoru shuddered. "That's awful."

"A bit like selling your soul to the devil," Kyouya said softly, sitting perched on a crate. "It doesn't end well—it never does. Strange, isn't it, what some people will do for love?" _Like you, Kaoru, using me to make Hikaru jealous. _"And yet, how can we blame them?" _Actually, I can. I can really blame you for using me. _

_Are you talking about using me to forget your love for Tamaki? _"Yeah," Kaoru said, not meeting his eye. Not that Kyouya was looking at him either; the Shadow King's gaze had dropped to the floor, as though he couldn't—and wouldn't—look at Kaoru.

His tone became unnaturally brisk again. "I think that Mori-sempai is supposed to be the mermaid. It shouldn't be difficult, since he doesn't talk much to begin with. And Hunny-sempai will be the prince, naturally."

The Hitachiin choked at the image of Mori in a mermaid's tail.

"Strange though it may be…" Kyouya said grimly, picking up some shimmery blue-green fabric. "I think this will do." He cut off a small snippet and handed it to Kaoru so that the redhead could pin it against the design.

"Yeah, it looks okay," Kaoru said. It would be pretty easy to make trousers out of the soft, silky material. He took the cloth from Kyouya and felt his fingers burn when they brushed against the Shadow King's. He quickly withdrew his hand, looking shocked. Kyouya seemed to have felt it too, because he had backed away hastily.

"Ah… all right then," Kaoru said, pretending that nothing had happened. He glanced at the designs. "You get to play the Romeo and Juliet part with Haruhi."

"Yes," Kyouya said. "Although I have no idea why. Tamaki, being the odd number out, is obviously going to play Paris."

"Then that leaves the Aragorn and Arwen stunt to me and Hikaru," Kaoru said.

"Yes, you're actually fortunate to only have Aragorn and Arwen. I believe that Tamaki recommended a few… _distasteful_… shojo manga, concerning illicit affairs between twin brothers," Kyouya said. "But I suppose that wouldn't have been difficult for the two of you. Perhaps you would even have enjoyed it."

Kaoru's cheeks flared at the comment. "It's lucky that they didn't pick one of those, then," he said evenly. "I think that I have the right outfit for your Romeo costume back home. I've already made something like that for a play that never pushed through…I think that the costume's roughly your size, anyway."

Hunny seemed to appear out of nowhere. "Kao-chan! We couldn't help overhearing, and you said that you have Kyou-chan's clothes back at your house, so why don't you bring him there to see if it fits him?"

Kyouya looked nonplussed. "I'm sure that it's unnecessary—"

"We wouldn't want to have an unforeseen costume disaster tomorrow, now would we?" Mori pointed out.

"But I'm sure it fits him—"

"Better make double sure," said Hunny, practically shoving him out of the room. For such a tiny little thing, he had amazing strength. Kaoru pitched forward and would have landed hard on the floor, had not Kyouya caught him in time. Kyouya glared at Hunny with venom that rivaled even his morning fury.

"Sempai!" he said furiously, holding tightly onto the redhead. "You could have hurt Kaoru!"

"Sorry, Kao-chan!" said Hunny, covering his mouth in surprise—or rather, to cover up a delighted smile. "I didn't mean to push you. Good thing Kyou-chan caught you, ne?"

"Um… yeah," Kaoru said. Kyouya was still holding him, and he knew that the proper thing to do was to say that Kyouya could let go of him now. But he didn't. He closed his eyes, wanting to stay like that for just a while… Kyouya had been pretending that he didn't exist, but now he knew that he was real; it was impossible not to feel that way, with the older boy's arms around him.

Kyouya knew that he should let go, but he had missed the scent of Kaoru's hair, missed the touch of that pale skin. With supreme effort, he finally released the younger boy. It was stupid; Kaoru had manipulated him, and he knew it.

Kaoru looked away. "Thanks, sempai," he said dully. He didn't move to take Kyouya's arm the way he used to. "I think we'd better go."

* * *

"Oh, Kyouya-kun! What a pleasant surprise—you look marvelously well." Both Kyouya and Kaoru stopped dead in their tracks at Hitachiin Yuzuha's voice. Kaoru looked flustered. Of all the days that his mother could have chosen to stop by suddenly, it had to be _now_?

"Hitachiin-sama," Kyouya said, bowing courteously to her. "It's a pleasure to see you again."

"It's been too long," she said probingly. "You haven't been stopping by recently."

"I'm afraid that I'm very busy these days, Hitachiin-sama," he said.

_Yeah, busy. Busy avoiding me._ Kaoru forced a smile. "Mother—"

The Hitachiin matriarch looked at the uneasiness between them and felt her hopes disappear. Whatever had happened between them, it definitely wasn't pretty. "You should stop by more often, Kyouya-kun," she said. "I'm sure that Kaoru misses you."

Kaoru's cheeks burned. "Mother, don't be silly," he said quickly. "Of course not."

"Yes, Hitachiin-sama. Kaoru has been doing admirably well without me."

Last night, she had come across Kaoru in the kitchen, crying as though he'd just lost his best friend, resting his head on his knees and muffling the sound in his arms. Obviously he'd thought that the kitchen was the last place anyone would think to look for him. "Kaoru, what's wrong? What hurts?"

"Nothing," Kaoru had said, gulping back his sobs. "I'm fine, mom. I just…" He had given in to a moment of girlish weakness, missing Kyouya. "My head," he finally managed to say. "Just a headache." With a watery chuckle, he got off the cold, tiled floor. This was where he and Kyouya had been laughing so hard, participating in Tamaki's ridiculous 'commoner baking' idea.

"Are you going somewhere with Kyouya-kun tonight?" she had asked tactlessly. "I haven't seen him around lately."

He had flinched. "No, mom. I haven't seen him lately. He's kind of busy with Tamaki-sempai."

"Oh. I see." She had known better than to ask further. But she could clearly see that her son was hurting over this. It had gotten so bad that she could now distinguish between him and Hikaru—Kaoru was the one with the perpetually tragic expression on his face. "Kaoru… if you ever want to talk about it…"

"Mom!" He had been shocked and furious. "God. It's not like we were all that close. He just happened to be bored, and I was around. It's no big deal."

A picture lay next to him—the photo of him and Kyouya from the art gallery, that one time. Apparently Kaoru had asked the photographer for a copy, and had gotten it framed. Yuzuha bent down to pick it up. "Are you sure, Kaoru?" she had asked gently.

A spasm of pain crossed her son's face. "I'm sure," he had whispered, without really looking at her.

And now, looking at the Shadow King, she could tell that he was pained too. "You two need each other," Yuzuha pronounced.

Kyouya was much too self-possessed to look down at his feet or blush. "I'm afraid that I must refute that statement, Hitachiin-sama." _Kaoru doesn't need me at all. _

_But I need him. And I hate it, but I can't do anything about it. _Even his sister knew it. Fuyumi had watched him brood all of last night. "Kyouya?" she had ventured timidly, after watching him sit staring into space for two hours. "Are you feeling all right?"

He had considered the question, but decided that it was too much trouble to even bother talking or convincing her otherwise, so he had simply shaken his head.

She bit her lip. "Is it… Kaoru-kun? You two haven't been speaking recently." What she didn't tell him was that she had had her ear pressed to the door the day that he had thrown his cellphone at it in a fit of despondency, after calling Kaoru's number for the twentieth time and still hadn't gotten any answer.

Kyouya had looked dully at her and shaken his head again.

"Talk," she had pleaded.

"Leave me alone," he had said flatly. Then he had simply gotten up and walked into his room, slamming the door behind him. She heard the click of the lock sliding into place and knew that she wouldn't be able to get to him.

It seemed, these days, that no one could get to either of them anyway.

"Mom, we've still got some stuff to do," Kaoru said stiffly.

"Should I send up some tea, or—?"

"There's no need, Hitachiin-sama. I won't be staying long. Please don't worry," Kyouya replied. "But I thank you for your hospitality."

"All right," she said, frowning at their retreating backs.

* * *

"I think that's it," Kyouya said. He had known that Kaoru's costume would fit him; Kaoru knew that his costume would fit him; in fact, he was pretty sure that Hunny and Mori knew it too. The whole trip had been completely unnecessary, but he had given in to the senior's insistence. He plucked at the black velvet sleeves and fine gold piping; simple, and its very plainness was what made it so dramatic. It was beautiful, like everything that Kaoru ever made.

Kaoru nodded. "Mmph," he said, his mouth full of pins. His eyes widened when Kyouya stepped out of the dressing room. He had never seen Kyouya so handsome. He fit the Romeo part perfectly. He removed the pins from his lips, certain that he'd swallow them if he continued looking at Kyouya.

The Shadow King nodded. "I think it's magnificent," he said, indicating the clothes. "A real work of art."

"Yes, it is," Kaoru agreed, unable to help himself. As a designer, he had an eye for beauty—and this was definitely beauty. "Breathtaking."

Were they still talking about the same thing?

Kyouya smiled wryly. "Then again, everything that you design is stunning," he said. He took a look at the Juliet costume that Kaoru was putting together, in brilliant hues of gold and white. "That looks nice too."

"It's for Haruhi." Kaoru adjusted a little bit of the low collar. "Do you think it'll look good?"

The Shadow King's eyes judged it critically. "Yes. But don't you think that it's a bit too long for Haruhi?"

"There's no way I can be mistaken," Kaoru said. "Mori-sempai handed me these measurements himself."

Kyouya frowned. "You're about an inch or two taller than Haruhi. Why don't you see whether it's too short on you or not?"

Kaoru's cheeks heated. "Sempai! I can't wear girl's clothes!"

One dark eyebrow was raised. "May I kindly remind you of the Zuka club occasion?"

The redhead flinched. That particular cross-dressing incident wasn't exactly his favorite memory. "Okay, okay," he grumbled, heading off to the dressing room. "Anything to get it over with."

He emerged after ten minutes and saw Kyouya's eyes light up in admiration before the Shadow King could stop himself. Kaoru was glad that Kyouya hadn't been able to prevent himself; he had missed that light in Kyouya's eyes. In fact, he had missed Kyouya's eyes… no, he had just missed Kyouya. "It… uh… it fits me perfectly," he managed to say. "That means that it probably would be a bit too long on Haruhi."

"Yes…" Kyouya murmured, his eyes drinking in the sight of Kaoru in the dramatic gown. Male or not, Kaoru made a stunning Juliet. Those dark red-gold eyelashes swept own over his pale cheeks, and his pale pink lips trembled slightly. "It's… it's beautiful." _You're beautiful._ He felt a spasm of horror at his thought and he clamped down on it immediately.

They looked at each other. One was Romeo, one was Juliet; two star-crossed lovers, meant to be together with someone else. Two torn apart by warring factions. In the mirror, their reflections played off one another in a study of contrasts. Dark and light. "It looks like it was made for you," Kyouya said quietly.

"It's for Haruhi," Kaoru pointed out. "I'm supposed to play my part with Hikaru, remember?"

"I remember," Kyouya said, in a strangely strangled voice. He checked his watch but his mind never even registered what time it displayed. "If that's all…"

Kaoru nodded. "That's all, sempai," he whispered. He looked up just as Kyouya was going out the door. "Sempai… I've been regretting about… about this thing… why we're not... not talking…"

Kyouya felt his heart harden. So Kaoru thought that it was that easy to get back into his good graces, after all that he had done to him? "Is that so?" he said coldly.

Kaoru snapped at the chilly tone. "But it looks like I was wrong," he said.

The Shadow King wouldn't look at him, knowing that if he did, he would cave almost immediately. "I suppose that we agree on something, then," he said bitterly, and closed the door softly behind him.

That night, Kaoru tossed in restless sleep. There was no reason for him to feel this way; he was in love with Hikaru. And wasn't he happy? Hikaru had been showering more attention on him as of late. But he wasn't happy, and he didn't even reciprocate that attention.

He had stopped reaching out for Hikaru…

_Do you know, sempai, that I never even asked you how or why you could tell that I wasn't Hikaru?_

When he woke up, it was to sweat beading his forehead, a tangled, sticky blanket and the remnants of a dream about Kyouya. Kyouya… _was doing things to him. _And he had liked it. No, he had even been the one to initiate the whole affair in his dream. His hand flew to his mouth. No. Dreams were no indicator of your true nature… it was a fluke. It had to be.

_Why now? Why when it's too late, when he doesn't even pay attention to me anymore_? He winced, disgusted, when his pajamas made a squelching noise as he got off the bed. What he needed was a nice, long, cold shower.

He had never dreamt of Hikaru that way.

But he couldn't be in love. Not with Kyouya... but what other explanation could there be? He groaned, covering his face with his hands.

* * *

"Mother, you shouldn't drink so much," Tamaki said, trying to tug away the glass of wine from Kyouya's grasp.

The Shadow King couldn't help smirking. If anyone needed to be told that, it was Tamaki. Kyouya held his alcohol quite well; on the other hand, the blonde boy didn't, and yet the Suoh heir continuously tried to match him glass for glass. It was kind of pathetic—and yet endearing. Already Tamaki's cheeks were flushed, and his words were slightly slurred.

"I'm perfectly sober," he assured him. "But I think that it's time for you to call it a night, Tamaki."

The blonde shook his head dizzily. "Hey Kyouya… I'm sorry, okay?"

Kyouya frowned. "Sorry?"

Tamaki's fuzzy head cleared just enough for him to realize that he shouldn't pursue that train of thought. At least, not if he wanted to keep his head. "Nothing. Just for doing all those stupid things… um… kind of always, now that I think about it."

The third Ootori smiled. "Don't worry about it," he said, taking another sip of the wine. "I honestly prefer you and your dim-wittedness, Tamaki."

"Hey, hey… don't call me dim," Tamaki muttered, reeling slightly. Kyouya caught him by the arm, rolling his eyes.

"Don't drink if you can't hold your liquor," he said, scowling. He and Tamaki had practically been raised to be accustomed to this sort of thing—it was a must for social gatherings. And obviously, the boy was French, so he was supposed to be even more experienced than Kyouya was with this sort of thing. They lived in a world where wine was poured out like water. "Tamaki, you've had enough." He regretted even having the host king over, but he his best friend had flat-out insisted on tagging along with him. And to be honest, these days, he lacked the energy even to hold him off.

Tamaki just smiled, turned his head to face Kyouya, and pressed his lips on the Shadow King's.

For a moment, Kyouya just sat there in wide-eyed shock as the host king's mouth moved over his own, Tamaki's deft fingers unbuttoning his shirt, the slender blonde pushing him down and then straddling him. Then suddenly, he pushed Tamaki away with a force that sent the host club king slamming into the opposite wall. He backed away, his face contorted with horror. "Don't touch me," he whispered, although he was pretty sure that he had knocked his best friend out cold.

Why had he pushed Tamaki away? It didn't make sense. Even if he knew that Tamaki was in love with Haruhi, Ootori Kyouya was not the type to waste a golden opportunity; after all, Tamaki was drunk, and likely wouldn't remember anything in the morning. Or if he did remember, he could always be convinced that he had just been hallucinating in his inebriated state.

But Kyouya had pushed him away. He hadn't wanted Tamaki's hands on his skin, hadn't liked the feel of those lips on his own. And it wasn't just that it was fueled by alcohol, or the knowledge that Tamaki liked Haruhi—it was something else.

Fuyumi appeared at the door. "Kyouya? I thought I heard some noise…" Her eyes wandered from her brother with his shirt hanging open to the golden-haired boy on the ground, obviously unconscious. Kyouya's lips were bruised with the clash of teeth from the impact of pushing Tamaki away.

"Fuyumi…" Kyouya slowly got to his feet. "Get him out of here. Please. Right now." He didn't face her. "Put him in one of the guest rooms."

"K… Kyouya…"

He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, for once not caring how common and unhygienic it might have been. "Fuyumi," he said sharply. "He's drunk, and he didn't know what he was doing. It isn't his fault."

His sister dropped her gaze. "I thought you were in love with him," she said softly, as she rang for the servants to take Tamaki out of the room.

"No… I'm not." And that, he realized, was the truth. "I'm not… I'm not in love… with _him_."

Fuyumi paused, frowning at the hesitation in the words. "But you _are_in love, aren't you, Kyouya? Kaoru-kun…"

The Shadow King closed his eyes, his mind swirling with alcohol and half-formed thoughts. For once, he thought, he had miscalculated on a large scale. "I think so."

* * *

"WHO, IN THE NAME OF HELL, MIXED UP OUR MEASUREMENTS?" Kaoru barked out, obviously furious when his Arwen costume was just a few inches too short, showing his ankles, and so tight around his chest that he was having trouble breathing. He hadn't exactly had a good morning, and now, on top of it all, he was having a headache over the costumes. He_knew_that there was something wrong with those Juliet measurements, but he had been so mixed-up after Kyouya had left that he didn't even realize that _his own _measurements were flawed. You would think that being a designer who frequently made his own clothes, he would have noticed. But no, he had been distracted.

Haruhi shrugged. "I guess it's my fault," she said. "I must have written down the wrong names after the measurements were done." The fabric of the Juliet costume pooled on the floor around her feet. Kaoru meant to pin the hem up for her today, but it wasn't the only flaw; it was just a smidge too loose around her chest area, as though it was meant for… for, well, him. He let out an exasperated sigh, wondering exactly what he had done to deserve the wrath of heaven on his head.

"It's no problem, Kao-chan! Just switch roles with Haru-chan today!" chirped Hunny.

By this time, Hikaru was confident that his brother would never get that weird connection with Kyouya again. "Yeah, I don't think that it's that bad," he agreed.

Kaoru felt a stab of horror. He had resolved to avoid Kyouya. He hadn't thought that it would be difficult, seeing as Kyouya had been the one to start avoiding him anyway. But now it looked like it would be impossible. Even his own twin brother wasn't supporting him.

"Where's the Paris costume?" Tamaki asked, hands flailing around as he rooted through the costume bags. As Kyouya had anticipated, Tamaki hadn't remembered what had happened last night.

Kaoru blinked. "I'm sure that I brought it with me."

Mori hid a secret smile. The Paris costume was now safely hidden in his locker. Never let it be said that Morinozuka Takashi didn't have his own secret, sly side.

"There's always the Legolas costume left over from our last fantasy role play," suggested Haruhi. "That was the one that you wore last time, right? There's only half an hour left for us to get ready, so we don't really have a choice. You can always play a love triangle with me and Hikaru."

Tamaki sighed dramatically. "If I must… well, the show must go on, after all." He went off to the back room to hunt for the old costume and found that it had been laid out in a rather obvious position. With a shrug, he picked it up and headed off to dress.

"Kyouya-sempai?" Haruhi said, knocking on the dressing room door. "I can't play opposite you today, since the costume doesn't fit me."

"What? I thought that Kaoru already fixed it yesterday," Kyouya called back, his voice muffled by the walls.

"Yeah, but it looks like we mixed up all our measurements, and he didn't notice," Haruhi said. "He's been kind of distracted recently. He seems upset about something, don't you think?"

There was a pause. "I didn't notice," Kyouya replied coldly. "Thank you for informing me, Haruhi. You should go change now."

Haruhi slipped back to Mori and Hunny after changing quickly. She looked gorgeous in her Arwen costume, but the anxiety on her expression slightly marred her prettiness. Then again, the troubled look fit her character perfectly. "Do you really think that this'll work?" she fretted.

"Don't worry," Mori said simply. He looked her over. "Beautiful." She blushed, obviously surprised by the compliment, and as her worries wiped off her face she looked far more like the elegant, composed elf that she was supposed to be. He held out a thin silver necklace to her, with a delicate white gem hanging off the end. "But it needs something." She let him clasp it around her throat. "That's much better."

Kyouya emerged from the dressing room and was met again with Kaoru in the Juliet costume, fiddling nervously with his red hair. "Kaoru," he said softly, his eyes softening when he looked at the younger boy, unable to help himself. "Your hair's already perfect. You don't need to fix it anymore." The words were out of his mouth before he had thought them over, and he cursed inwardly. Since when did he ever speak without thinking?

Kaoru flushed. How could he disregard the Shadow King when Kyouya spoke to him that way? "Okay," he said, his hands dropping down to his sides. He tried to avoid looking at Kyouya, who definitely looked too damn good in his Romeo costume.

"Club starts now," Tamaki said. He looked comical yet cute in his elfin costume. The doors opened.

"KYAA!"

The fan girls stopped still when they saw Kyouya and Kaoru's matching costumes. The redhead was standing a little distance away from Kyouya, as though he didn't want to come close to the Shadow King. A silence fell, of the sort that had never fallen on the host club.

"K… Kyouya-sama," Renge said. "You look so dashing!"

The Shadow King managed a smooth smile. "I'm meant to be Romeo," he said. And boy, he looked every inch the part.

Renge quickly scattered the girls in different directions, sending them either squealing after Haruhi, Tamaki and Hikaru, or asking Hunny and Mori what the heck they were supposed to be. She, on the other hand, joined the group that went with Kyouya and Kaoru.

The two looks distinctly uncomfortable around each other. "Ah… Juliet seems to be hiding behind her maidenly modesty today," Kyouya said with a slight smile. He felt irritated. The least that Kaoru could do was try to get in the act, even if they obviously weren't on good terms at the moment. "What are you thinking of, Juliet?"

"I'm still wondering whether I'm making a mistake with Romeo," explained Kaoru. "See, he killed Tybalt—"

"What was I supposed to do? He killed my friend even after I tried to be nice to him."

"—he killed Paris—"

"He was trying to kill me."

"—and then he killed himself—"

"I thought you were dead, and I just couldn't live without you." He said it with feeling as he spoke, before looking away. Kaoru swallowed hard before continuing. Renge felt her eyes starting to fill with tears, without knowing precisely why. She wasn't the only one; the fan girls surrounding them were watching the two with watery eyes.

"—so I killed myself too. Talk about stupid. It's all basically killing." Kaoru looked down. "Romeo was—is—an idiot. He didn't understand at all. Why couldn't he have waited? Didn't he realize, that no matter what happened, I would have wanted him to be happy… no, like the big jerk that he is he didn't even consider that."

Kyouya gritted his teeth, steeling himself as he made a snap decision. "Looks like Juliet isn't feeling very maidenly or modest after all," he said. He grabbed Kaoru's arm. He had had enough of this. He wanted—no, he needed to know what was going on here. "Come on," he ordered, hauling Kaoru to the back room. "I think we need to talk."

* * *

"Let go of me!" Kaoru said, struggling against his grip. Outside, a small crowd had congregated around the door. Hikaru was pounding on it, yelling at Kyouya to release his younger brother.

Kyouya glared at him. "I don't know how much more of this I can take," he said dangerously. "I have no qualms about you ignoring me, Kaoru, but to mess the host club up like this is unforgivable."

"Ignoring you? Who the hell do you think you are? What the heck are you talking about?"

"I don't understand how or why, Kaoru. You haven't been taking my calls, you're always mysteriously 'out' when I come over to your classroom, and you're always never available, never around. I don't understand why you're avoiding me, and I'm tired of looking like a fool chasing after something that isn't there! The least that you can do is explain!"

"Explain? What do you mean explain? When I head to your classroom, they tell me that you said to tell me that you're busy, even when I see that you're not doing anything. Of course I don't answer your calls—you never call at all! And it's not like _you_answer my calls either." Kaoru's hands were trembling. "I don't get you anymore, Kyouya-sempai. Why are you doing this? Haven't you had enough of playing with me, pretending to be my _friend_?"

The Shadow King looked like he had just been slapped. "What do you mean 'pretending'? How could you even think that for a second?"

"I don't like being used, sempai," Kaoru hurled at him. "I know what you were trying to do now. It was all about getting to _him_, wasn't it?"

"You're not making any sense!" Kyouya looked at him with pained, confused eyes. "I never used you, Kaoru! You used _me._To get attention from your brother. While I was running around like an idiot, even after I knew that you had gotten tired of your games and finally gotten what you wanted. Do you know that I call your cellphone at least thirty times a night, even though I know that you'll never answer? At _least_ thirty times a night"

"Wow… even for Kyouya-sempai, that's pretty outrageous," Haruhi murmured.

"Kyou-chan was never one to do anything by halves," Hunny said.

Renge, on the other hand, was so delighted that she was practically emitting hearts. "Don't you see, Haruhi-kun? This is the grand passion that Kyouya-sama has been trying to hide under his cool exterior!"

Kaoru's was shocked by how daringly he could lie. "That's impossible. _I_call_you_that frequently, and you never pick up."

Kyouya tossed his phone at the younger boy. "Look at the call register if you want, Kaoru. You can't lie. You never called. But all the calls I tried to make—for your number—they're all there. I don' t know what your problem is. I never asked…" He trailed away. "I believed, for a split second there, that maybe the benefits didn't matter. Even if I got the benefits, I didn't give a damn about them. I was wrong, wasn't I?"

Kaoru didn't answer for a second. He was scrolling down the call register. They _were_all there. His honey-brown eyes were huge with misunderstanding. "Sempai… I don't get it." He handed Kyouya his own phone. "Look. My calls are all there as well."

The Shadow King frowned suspiciously at him but found his scowl melting away as his thumbs flew on the keypad. "I…" He hesitated, then a dark look fell on his face. "Use my phone to try calling yours."

Kaoru typed in his number swiftly and hit the dial button. "It… it says no answer," Kaoru said, bewildered. His phone wasn't even ringing. "Try mine."

Kyouya scrolled down to locate his number and got the same result. "I don't get it," he said softly. Then something clicked in his mind. "You had design classes, right? Your class president chose you."

"Yeah… so?"

"She's the one who's been obsessed with Hikaru all this time," Kyouya muttered, pacing. "And Tamaki's father, Chairman Suoh, was the one who convinced _my_father to let me sit in during the evening board meetings." His eyes flashed. Hikaru… and Tamaki. Those two rascals. "I lent Tamaki my phone once because he said that he was going to play games on it."

"Hikaru said that I left mine on the coffee table," Kaoru said. "Oh… my God. I knew that I had it in my bag, but I never questioned him about it even though I thought it was weird."

A muscle jumped in Kyouya's cheek. "The host club girls?"

"They'll do anything that Tamaki tells them, especially if they manage to get…"

"Renge!" they said simultaneously.

Tamaki and Hikaru looked at each other nervously. They could hear every word of what was going on, as did everyone else who was gathered around the back room. They all knew that the jig was up. Had Kyouya noticed—or cared—that anyone was listening in, he would probably have changed tacks immediately. Instead, he gave full force to his explosion of anger.

"GOD DAMN IT, I WILL _KILL_ THOSE IDIOTS!"

"Kyouya-sempai doesn't sound too happy," Haruhi observed, arms folded across her chest. Tamaki shuddered. The wrath of the third Ootori was fearsome. Even the fan girls seemed unusually subdued.

"Tell me, sempai," Kaoru said quietly. "Why does it matter so much to you?"

Kyouya looked at him. "Did you ever wonder why I could tell you apart from Hikaru?"

"Yes… kind of."

"Before, you two reached for each other. It was a little harder for me to tell back then, but I could still see by your eyes. Hikaru's eyes were restless, but yours were always on him. And then Haruhi came—and Hikaru reached for her. You never stopped reaching for him, until that time when he told you that…"

"Ah," Kaoru said, unaware that it was lucky that he had stopped Kyouya just before the Shadow King could let the others hear that classified information. "Yeah… I think people could tell just by the company we kept."

"And your little guessing game. 'Guess which one is Hikaru', indeed. That was really how I could tell. It was by your tone." His dark eyes settled on Kaoru's golden-brown ones. "Your heart wasn't in it; no one else noticed, but I knew the catch in your voice as you recited along with him. It was always 'Guess which one is Hikaru'—but never Kaoru. There was no 'Guess which one is Kaoru' game. No one really cared or noticed much. But I knew the reason why. It was because you didn't want to be found. You didn't want anyone to tell you two apart."

Kaoru bit his lip. "Does it matter? Haruhi can. _You can_."

"It matters, Kaoru. It matters to me… because there were benefits. There was merit there, but not one that I could measure by money or connections. It was just you." Kyouya caught Kaoru's chin in his hand. "I don't know how it happened, but I liked seeing you reach out for someone. That's why whenever you and Hikaru asked me which was which, I always said your name first. I think I understand that now."

Yeah, a couple of months of psychoanalyzing later, anyway.

Kaoru let out a choked sob. "Kyouya… sempai…" It had all been one big misunderstanding. It was all because of Tamaki and Hikaru, and he hadn't even realized it. "Sempai… I really like you."

Hikaru froze. His brother had finally confessed.

"Oh my God, I cannot believe that _I am not getting this on tape!_" Renge hissed.

There was a moment of silence. Kyouya had been wondering why he still acted lovesick even though he was over Tamaki. And now he knew. He had known since last night, with Tamaki and Fuyumi. There was really only one person for him, and it wasn't the Host Club king. "Kaoru, I not only really like you. I love you. Please… this time, reach out for me."

The host club exploded in a series of 'KYAA!' screams that shook the school.

* * *

Kyouya was irritable. "The least that you lot could have done was let us know that you could hear everything," he muttered. He _could not _believe he hadn't factored that in. It was a huge error—one that was understandable, given the circumstances—but still one that irritated him to no end.

Haruhi smiled at him. "But if we did that, sempai, we would have interrupted your conversation, and then your confession might never have happened."

Kaoru twined his fingers with Kyouya's. "Personally, I'm just glad we got out of that one alive," he said. The fan girls had attacked right after he and Kyouya had (foolishly) thrown the door open to investigate the source of the noise.

Hikaru and Tamaki were shuffling their feet in a corner of the host club. "Don't you two think that you should talk with them?" Hunny asked them.

The Shadow King's eyes narrowed. "It would take a bigger man than I am to forgive what they did."

"Yeah… I don't know if I can ever trust Hikaru again after this," Kaoru said in a low voice. It was the one dark spot on his happiness now; his twin had done a sin so great that he didn't know what to do.

"You don't have to trust him right now," Mori said. "But he's your brother. You should forgive him."

"Kyou-chan, Tama-chan is your best friend," Hunny pointed out. "And you were ignoring him back during the days when you were with Kao-chan. I think it's understandable why he acted the way he did. And after all, Haru-chan, Takashi and I are just as guilty—we got involved too. The only difference is that we weren't affected as much by you two being friends, which is why we were able to decide to put you two back together."

Kyouya sighed. "Well, he _is_a Suoh… we of the Ootori family really must keep up business connections…"

Kaoru nodded. "And I have to admit that Hikaru _is_my brother…"

"They're idiots," Kyouya concluded. "And as such, they didn't know what in the name of hell they were doing." He sighed. "What the heck, I'm too glad to stay mad at them. In retrospect, perhaps without their influence, we might not have gotten to this point." He smiled warmly at Kaoru. It was a nice smile, made all the more precious since he frowned so frequently.

They headed over to the two. "Look, I think that we have to talk," Kaoru said. Tamaki and Hikaru both looked up, obviously dreading what Kyouya and Kaoru would have to say. But the light tone that Kaoru adopted gave them just a little more hope.

"I never thought that you two were cunning enough to adopt a plan the way you did," Kyouya said, shaking his head. "It's so good, it might have been one of my own."

Tamaki blinked. Was Kyouya… complimenting them?

"Not that it wasn't wrong, mind you," Kaoru added. "But we _did_kind of shoulder everyone out of the way when Kyouya and I were together—although you were both idiots; we were just friends."

"It was like I didn't even exist," Hikaru confirmed. Tamaki nodded in agreement.

"So we acknowledge that that was wrong," Kyouya said. "And we understand why you two did what you did." The Shadow King's hand tightened a little around Kaoru's. "You two are important to us. So… we just wanted you to know that it's okay among us four, all right? We can't hold grudges."

Hikaru blinked. "Pinch me, I must be dreaming. Is that really the Shadow King?"

Kyouya let out a low growl, sorely tempted to take back everything he'd just said. "Don't push it, Hikaru."

Tamaki nodded slowly. "I guess that it's okay now," he said. "I don't know why I overreacted like that." He offered them a tentative smile. "I'm really sorry, Kyouya… Kaoru."

"Apology accepted, milord," Kaoru said. "I can't stay mad at you guys for too long anyway." He looked down at his twin. "Hikaru?"

His twin solemnly stood up. "Kaoru… I can't believe you hooked up with someone before I did," he said, giving his little brother a shoulder thump. "Damn. To think that _I'm_the older one." He glared at Kyouya. "Look, I'm sorry for everything. But if you break his heart, I'll break your ass. Got that straight?"

Kyouya laughed mirthlessly. "I have no intention of ever breaking Kaoru's heart. But if you ever tried to 'break my ass', as you referred to it, I would have my security guards after you, never fear."

"Glad that's settled," Tamaki said with a sigh of relief.

"Not quite yet, Tamaki." Kyouya's eyes glinted. "I'm going to call up Takada Catering for tomorrow's activity."

Tamaki let out a wail. "MOOOOOOTHEEEERRR! Don't take it out on daddy's wallet!" His grandmother was _definitely_going to have his head once she saw his credit card bills.

"And_you_will be doing my math and physics homework for the rest of the week!" Kaoru said cheerfully, depositing his bag onto Hikaru's lap.

"What?" Hikaru blurted out. "But…"

"It leaves me free to go out with Kyouya tonight," Kaoru said, threading his arm through Kyouya's. "Want to go?"

"But what about the evening meeting?" Tamaki asked the third Ootori.

"I already convinced father that it was decreasing my efficiency," Kyouya said. "That was what I was talking to him about over the phone awhile ago. He thinks that he came to that conclusion himself." He chuckled. It was getting easier and easier to manipulate his father. "So I'm thinking Italian tonight."

"Pasta," agreed Kaoru. "It's like you read my mind."

"And then you can come over to my place for dessert," Kyouya said. "I have a feeling it'll be a little more private at my house than yours."

Hikaru's eyes bugged out. Overprotective-older-brother mode kicked in. "If you do anything to my little brother—"

Kaoru smirked. "Oh, I doubt that I'll protest much if he tries."

Tamaki glared at him. "Devilish twin, don't you dare—"

"It isn't _Kaoru_ who dares, Tamaki," purred Kyouya, tightening his hold on Kaoru and obviously enjoying the expressions on Tamaki and Hikaru's faces. "It's me."

Haruhi shook her head. "They really enjoy tormenting Hikaru and Tamaki-sempai, don't they?"

Mori shrugged. "Think of it as a little justified payback."

Hunny just grinned. "I'm just glad that Kyou-chan and Kao-chan had a happy ending."

* * *

A/N: So there you have it, everyone! Gives me a warm, fuzzy Christmas-y feeling just typing all this. Haha. If you liked it, please review! I'll be away for a seminar right after the 25th, so I may not be able to reply to your reviews right away. But thanks again for everyone who stuck by this fic for all six chapters of it. The epilogue is coming up next, but like I said, it's just a short filler.

Merry Christmas, everyone! Peace out.


	8. Epilogue: Together

A/N: Dearest readers, I'm so sorry for taking so long to post this epilogue. By now you've all surely pushed this story out of your heads. But I hope that some of you out there will still take the time to read this. My only defense is that I've been swamped with academics and competitions. And am finally having my own little fairy tale come to life, which made me extremely busy but also extremely happy. This epilogue is for Carlisle Lovecraft, who insisted on constantly making sure I was okay when I was sick over the past few months, wished me good luck at contests, and put up with my million and one idiosyncrasies and restrictions. This is also for all you readers out there who stayed with this story and took the time to review, making me oh-so-happy. Thanks, everyone!

* * *

Epilogue: Together 

"The host club's ratings dropped the moment you two became an official couple, you know," Tamaki said.

Kyouya rolled his eyes. "Don't care," he said indifferently, his hand idly stroking the head that lay on his lap. "My skill at cutting corners on the budget more than makes up for it… or if you insist, I can always quit the host club and join one that would actually help me."

"On the other hand, I'm not really complaining," Tamaki said hastily.

"Well,_I_am. Do you guys _have_to indulge in public displays of affection?" complained Hikaru as Kaoru began playing with the warm red scarf that Kyouya had around his neck. Kaoru had made it for him, to wear with his uniform. He liked it—it was the exact shade of the younger Hitachiin's hair.

"Yes," Kaoru said. "Besides, Kyouya-sempai makes a nice pillow." Kyouya smirked as he popped a maple syrup candy into Kaoru's mouth. "Mm. See?" Kaoru said.

Hikaru scowled. "If mother knew—"

"Oh, she knows. She's just relieved that I'm not engaged in incestuous acts with you, apparently," Kaoru said. Hikaru and Tamaki stared at him, but he remained completely nonchalant. "I told her, and she said that I made a really good match with Kyouya-sempai—something about how we were both mature."

Kyouya's eyes twinkled. It helped that his family did a lot of business with the Hitachiin family. That, and the fact that _he_was the person who often contacted the host club's families to let them know how their children were doing; therefore he was close with all of his friend's parents. With a fond smile, he remembered Hitachiin Yuzuha telling him point-blank that she was entrusting Kaoru to him, that day when he had first taken Kaoru out. "In truth, I think that Hitachiin-sama was cheering us on from day one."

Kaoru grinned. "She told me that she'd been waiting for it to happen ever since we went to the gallery show together."

"What about Ootori-sama?" asked Tamaki. "I don't think your dad would be pleased if he found out, Kyouya."

The Shadow King yawned. "He knows too."

At that, even Kaoru was astounded. "WHAT?"

"Yes, I informed him about the matter. Father was pleased that I was furthering our interests with the Hitachiin family." Kyouya played idly with Kaoru's hair. He liked the golden highlights that danced in Kaoru's fine red locks. It was like the silk of one of the kimonos he designed. "He said that after all, my brothers could provide him with heirs if he wished it. And besides that, I suggested that Fuyumi could be a surrogate mother for us… in fact, she already agreed. And I suppose that you two and Mori-sempai and Hunny-sempai could be godfathers. Of course Haruhi will be the godmother."

Hikaru choked. "You mean that you're already thinking of marriage and… and fatherhood?" he sputtered.

Kyouya blinked. "I'm not averse to it," he said simply. "That is, if Kaoru isn't. Do you mind, Kaoru?"

Kaoru grinned and closed his eyes. "As long as I'm not called 'mommy' in the relationship, I don't think I'd mind. I want four children—two girls and two boys. And they'll be two sets of twins," he said dreamily. "But I want them to all be friends with each other. And the boys will have the smoothest, glossiest dark hair."

"The girls will have golden-brown eyes and red hair that dances with sunset highlights," Kyouya added, waxing poetic.

"Oh God, I think I'm going to be sick," Tamaki said. Dear Lord—so Tamaki _did_have a corniness limit.

"How can you guys even _think_ of that?" Hikaru demanded. "You're only in high school!"

"Why not?" Kaoru asked. "I want to have a long, lasting relationship with Kyouya-sempai."

"My personality diabetes is acting up," said Hikaru, pretending to gag. "Could you stop it with the saccharine mush before ants attack the club room?"

Kaoru rolled his eyes. "Get over it, Hikaru. Kyouya-sempai's not leaving anytime soon, so you may as well get used to the idea of us thinking of things like that."

"Besides, I find that it pays to think ahead," said Kyouya. All in all, his father had taken it rather well. Of course, he deliberately left out the part where he had set up a PowerPoint presentation just to show his father exactly how large a profit they could get from a union with a Hitachiin member and then gave him a prepared speech. The amount turned out to be considerably huge—huge enough so that his father had even been willing to overlook the fact that they were both male, when, on the other hand, he would probably have tried to slap some 'sense' into his third son.

Of course, there was the itsy-bitsy little detail: "What about Suoh Tamaki? Wouldn't it be more to your advantage if you pressed a relationship with him? After all, the Suoh family _is_richer than the Hitachiin family."

"No," he said. "Tamaki's position is precarious. His grandmother, after all, is likely to disinherit him if he gets involved in a homosexual relationship. His moods and temper are unstable and unpredictable; it's better to have someone a little more secure than Tamaki. Hitachiin Yuzuha-sama is more carefree about such things and has no problem with her son's gender preferences whatsoever."

"I see," his father said. "But discretion is a must until you become the pinnacle of success, Kyouya; you cannot, under any circumstances, make your relationship with Hitachiin Kaoru obvious to the media until you reach a point where they will never be able to touch you. The press would have a field day unless they wouldn't dare print anything about you. You have to be prudent until you're powerful enough to withstand anything that could shake your reputation."

"Of course, father."

"Pity about the Suoh heir."

Conveniently leaving out the fact that he had fallen in love with Tamaki, gotten his heart broken from unrequited love, and then realized that he had feelings for Kaoru… he smiled. As far as his father was concerned, it was merely a dispassionate arrangement for the benefit of both parties.

"I'm glad that you spoke to your dad," Kaoru said. "Did you tell him how much you would get from a relationship with me?"

Kyouya nodded, unable to lie to him. "I had to," he said. "He would never have agreed otherwise." He looked intently into Kaoru's eyes. They were the color of maple syrup. He liked that. "You know that I love you for more than that, right?"

"Of course, stupid," Kaoru said, leaning up for a chaste kiss to be pressed on his lips.

Hikaru shut his eyes. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I'm traumatized for life!" Kyouya and Kaoru just laughed.

* * *

"I've had enough of watching the two of you play sucky-face," Hikaru said sulkily. "I'm going to see what Haruhi's up to, drag her over here, and hopefully force her to distract you guys from being so disgustingly syrupy around each other." Tamaki nodded and got up to bounce after him, but Kyouya stopped them.

"Are you two still mooning after Haruhi?" Kyouya asked.

"We are not 'mooning after' Haruhi," Tamaki said airily.

"Okay, sorry, wrong choice of words," Kaoru said. "What we mean is, are you two still trying to compete for Haruhi's heart?"

"Yeah," Hikaru said warily. "Why, are you planning to set up a crazy threesome with her now?"

Kaoru bit back a laugh and tried (but failed) to glare at his older brother. "Kyouya-sempai said that he figured something out a couple of weeks back."

Kyouya shot him a quick, surprised glance, but finally nodded. "I thought it would be all right if I didn't tell you, but I think that you two have the right to know." He smirked. "Months… and months… and months… and months ago," he said, "Haruhi and Mori-sempai became an official couple without us knowing about it."

The crash of the tea set falling to the floor made even Hunny, Haruhi and Mori look up in confusion.

"Oh dear. You're going to have to pay to replace that, Hikaru," Kyouya said, frowning at the mess but obviously enjoying the effect that his words had had on them. "That happens to be a genuine antique Foley set. It doesn't come cheap."

Hikaru was flushed. "What do you mean, they're a couple?"

Kaoru stifled a laugh. "Go ahead and ask them—I don't think they were trying to trick us; it's just that those two are the quiet type. I can't believe I didn't see it myself. I only figured it out when Kyouya-sempai pointed out that necklace that Haruhi's wearing. It's a Morinozuka heirloom."

"I had my suspicions a long time ago, but I only confirmed it this month," Kyouya said, ignoring Tamaki's hanging jaw. "I didn't want to form any official opinion until I was sure that I was correct, but it seems that I was. After all, Haruhi always treated Mori-sempai a little differently, didn't she? And aside from Hunny-sempai, Mori-sempai doesn't act that way towards anyone."

"Mother! You could have told me!" Tamaki wailed.

Kyouya cocked an eyebrow. "You never asked, dad."

"Is it true?" Hikaru demanded, rounding on Haruhi and Mori. "Are you guys really together?"

There was the slightest of pauses, and Haruhi blushed slightly. "Well… yes. We agreed to keep it quiet for a while, though. We thought that you guys would tease us a lot about it, and so on. But we meant to admit it if anyone ever asked us."

"How long has this been going on?" asked Tamaki.

"A while now," Mori replied vaguely.

Hunny bounced up and down in his chair. "Takashi and Haru-chan always go out together during the weekends!" The bubbly senior ignored the redness of the couple's cheeks. "And they're always so nice and sweet to each other during lunchtime, and when Takashi has kendo—"

"WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL US?"

"That wasn't very nice," Kyouya teased Kaoru. "What did you tell them that for?"

Kaoru smirked. "They _were_being kind of annoying, don't you agree?" He sat up and stretched, letting Kyouya wrap a lazy arm around his waist. "Besides, now they're leaving us alone. Don't you like it that way?"

"Devious," Kyouya said. "Are you sure that _I'm_still the Shadow King of this club? You seem to be pulling the strings a lot lately."

The redhead chuckled. "I like to pull _your_strings—but that's about the extent of my deviousness."

"Can I pull _your_strings?" Kyouya asked, grinning.

"Oh man… too many possible jokes to make about that one," Kaoru groaned. "And at least ten different innuendoes."

"Shut up, Kaoru," the Shadow King said, grinning.

"Make me."

Kyouya's dark eyes gleamed as he tilted the younger boy's chin up look down into his eyes. "Hmm... I'll wager that you're going to regret saying that..."

* * *

"This is too hard," Kaoru complained, shoving his red bangs out of his eyes. "Kyouya-sempai—I don't think I can do this."

"Come on, Kaoru. I promise that you'll be glad that you tried when we're finished," Kyouya said. "It isn't that bad."

"Easy for you to say," the Hitachiin growled out. He sucked in a breath. "Okay, okay."

Kyouya grinned. "Good," he said, pressing a kiss on Kaoru's cheek.

Hikaru walked into the room, obviously not knowing that they were there. Then he noticed them, felt his face slide into a shocked expression, quickly corrected it and frowned at the Shadow King. "Could you _not_do that to my little brother?" he asked. "I mean, God, hello, as though he wasn't feminine enough already, I have to see him doing that…"

Kyouya and Kaoru exchanged looks. "Um, we're kind of doing something, as you have obviously noticed," Kaoru said, looking kind of embarrassed. "Could you… you know, get out? And maybe keep the comments to yourself?"

The older Hitachiin threw up his hands into the air, rolling his eyes. "Whatever! Sorry if I interrupted your… moment." He shrugged. By now, he felt that nothing that Kaoru and Kyouya did would faze him. "Listen, I'm going over to Tamaki's house, okay? Milord and I are going to play some video games." He had been spending a lot more time with milord lately. If Kaoru hadn't known better, he would have sworn that there was something go on there… but most likely, they were just forming plans to steal Haruhi away from Mori-sempai.

Surely they weren't that low…

"Fine, fine," Kaoru said. "Could you just, you know, give us some privacy?"

"Tell Tamaki not to stay up too late," Kyouya said indifferently. "And while you're at it, you might remind him about next week's club activity."

"Go fuck yourself."

The Shadow King raised an eyebrow. "Well, you see, I would, it's just that I prefer having your delicious twin do it for me."

Kaoru punched Kyouya lightly on the arm. "Hey, hey. Don't push it." He looked up at his brother with Bambi eyes. "Will you go now?"

Hikaru snorted. "Not like anyone wants to see you two, you know," he said, and walked out the door.

Kyouya smiled, tracing the line of the redhead's cheek with his finger. "Looks like Hikaru's getting a little more accepting of our relationship, don't you think?"

"Well, he didn't scream or carry on, so yeah, I think so. Is that a normal reaction?" asked Kaoru. "I mean, generally when older brothers stumble upon their younger brothers doing things like this…"

"I prefer it to the alternative," Kyouya commented. "Now, to get back to what we were doing earlier…"

"Hold on…"

Kyouya raised an eyebrow. "Stalling for time?"

"No, but I would if I could."

"Honestly, I thought you were more mature than this."

"Well, it's harder than it looks, okay? I'm probably no good at it."

Kyouya smirked. "You'll be fine. Trust me." Kaoru blushed. "You're perfect."

"Hey… Kyouya-sempai… do you think that maybe Renge is taping this?"

The Shadow King frowned. "That's an option that I didn't consider." He released Kaoru from his grasp. "Renge? Are you there?"

The question was met with silence.

Kaoru snorted. "Well, if I were Renge, I probably wouldn't answer either."

Kyouya's eyes narrowed. "Renge, if you're there and you're just not answering, I will burn down all your manga."

Renge shot out of the shadows with a squeak of terror. "I'm so, so sorry, Kyouya-sama! But I couldn't resist capturing this moment on tape!" she said, her eyes sparkling as she clutched at her video camera.

The Shadow King wanted to kill her. "Isn't this a federal offense?"

The girl shrugged. "I don't think that the courts will lock me up just for this…"

Kaoru gritted his teeth. "Why don't we go and find out?"

"Kaoru," Kyouya said, putting a placating hand on his shoulder. Then he turned back to Renge. "I suggest that you leave. Now. This is private, all right? And if I find out that you taped this, I swear you won't live to regret it."

In other words: you won't live. She nodded and bowed deeply in apology before beating a hasty retreat.

"_Finally_," Kyouya said with a sigh—but his happiness was short-lived; one of the Hitachiin maids suddenly stumbled in.

"Oh my!" she squeaked, her eyes widening. "Kaoru-sama… I didn't know that you were home," she said, blushing to the roots of her hair.

Kaoru let out an exasperated breath, trying not to turn as red as his hair. Everyone was really making too big a deal out of this. It was fine, it was completely normal—hello, lots of people did this sort of thing, and he was pretty darn sure that they didn't have to deal with curious people coming in all the time to make comments or videotape them. "Okay, um, can you come back later? We're kind of busy," he said as regally as he could, considering the awkwardness of the situation.

"I can see that," the maid said, then realized what she had just said. "Oh my, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to…" She faltered under Kyouya's stony eyes and she ran out the door as well.

Kaoru threw up his hands in the air. "What is the big deal about you teaching me how to cook?"

Kyouya bit back a laugh. "It's because you look so cute in your frilly pink apron, Kaoru," he said, patting the younger boy on the head.

The redhead pouted. "I'm no good at this."

The Shadow King just took his hand firmly into his own. "You're good at everything, Kaoru. And I'm here to teach you anything you're not good at."

Kaoru looked up into his dark eyes and smiled. "Okay," he said, letting his head rest against the Shadow King's shoulder.

* * *

A/N: So now this really, and truly, is the end. I hoped that you all enjoyed it. I'm so sorry it was late. Happy end of February, the love month. Belated happy Valentine's day to you all. If you liked it, please review. If you hated it, please still review. I'm open to your suggestions, praise and criticisms. This is just a short "filler" thing, anyway, but I wanted to end it on a fun note showing the happiness that Kyouya and Kaoru finally managed to capture together. Any reactions, whether violent or peaceful, would be much appreciated. I'm thinking of a sequel. What do you all think? If my laptop stops doing the wonky on me soon, I'll be able to type my ideas soon.

Wow, this A/N is stretching on to forever. I just don't want to say goodbye to this story. Thank you all so much!


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